Nine Sides of a Mask
by XXVI
Summary: After a successful mission to bring back Sasuke, Naruto got banished. He leaves the village, and with the help of Kurama he goes to a safe place where he encounters someone who he least expects. He is then given a task to accomplish and grows strong to be able to accomplish it. With the help of Kurama and his bloodline will he be able to do it? Cliche start but will get better :D
1. The death of Naruto Uzumaki

**Disclaimer - I don't own Naruto and I probably won't, but can't tell for sure. All rights go to Masashi Kishimoto, (who in** **case you don't know, owns Naruto)**

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><p><strong>Nine sides of a Mask<strong>

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><p><em>Chapter 1: The death of Naruto Uzumaki<em>

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><p>"Sasuke, why won't you listen to me? You are like a brother to me!"<p>

"Shut up Naruto. You never knew what it's like to have a family and then all of it taken away from you!"

"You are right. I don't know how that feels, maybe if I had a family then I could at least relate to how you feel, however don't think for a second that I've had it easy just because I don't have a family. So, please come back Sasuke, otherwise... otherwise I'll break every bone in your body and drag you back if I have to!" stated Naruto.

"Like a dobe like you could anyway." finished Sasuke as the sound of 1000 birds started screeching from the tip of his fingers and a blue and silver lightning started to fly of off his fingertips.

Naruto sighed.

"Guess there's no other way." finished Naruto as a bright blue chakra ball, enveloped in malevolent red chakra, began to glow on the palm of Naruto's hand.

Naruto and Sasuke ran straight at each other at speed then can't be seen by normal eyes.

"**CHIDORI**"

"**RASENGAN**" Shouted both Sasuke and Naruto, and then when the two powerful jutsus clashed there was a bright flash before the giant explosion.

With that the explosion consumed the Valley of the End, also the location where Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha's final battle took place.

The irony of it, generations later another Uchiha and a distant relative if the Senju battles here again, except this one battle is going to change fate and will go down in history just like Madara and Hashirama final battle.

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><p><strong>Konoha<strong>

It was raining heavily in Konoha. The usually bright village seemed dull and sad with the grey clouds forbidding any sunlight. At the gates of Konoha were the eternal guards Izumo Kamizuki and his partner Kotetsu Hagane. Usually they would be bored and just be talking to each other; however that wasn't the case this time.

Earlier the two guards had seen Shikamaru Nara, Kiba Inuzuka, Choji Akimichi and Neji Hyuuga all pass by, going straight to the hospital because of the state they were in. All of them were severely injured especially Choji who was currently in a life or death situation.

They were currently awaiting the return of Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha. They had known about Sasuke running away from the village and the retrieval squad sent out by the Godaime Hokage Tsunade Senju, the team was led by the newly appointed chunin: Shikamaru Nara.

As they look past the main gate they could see a small figure, with what appeared like another figure in its shoulder. As the figure came towards the gate they could see the orange colour growing bigger and bigger, until Naruto stood at the gate with a victorious smile and one battered Uchiha on his shoulders.

"Izumo, Kotetsu... I made it...", and with that Naruto's world went black as he fell backwards, along with Sasuke who also fell with Naruto.

Izumo and Kotetsu just stared at each other blankly before picking up Naruto and Sasuke, then rushing to the hospital.

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><p><strong>Konoha Hospital<strong>

After regaining consciousness Naruto started to slowly open his eyes. He opened his eyes as the bright sunlight coming through the window tried to blind him. The first thing he noticed when he opened his eyes were the white walls that completely surrounded him, there was a small and simple white table. On the table was a simple brown vase with an assortment of flowers, however the flowers was withered and dead. The window was opened as was the curtains, and he could hear the birds chirping as well as the citizens of Konoha talking whilst getting on with their everyday life.

He then realized that he had to be in a hospital room. He hated coming to the hospital, not that he came here much any way due to the kyuubi's rapid healing. But when he did come here he wasn't very welcome and the nurses or doctors never looked after him properly.

He knew that any moment now a doctor or nurse will come and _ask_ him to leave because he is not injured any more. So why wait for them to ask him to leave. Naruto slowly got up from the bed whilst clutching his chest, where he could feel the bandages covering up the scar left by his _friend_ who plunged a chidori through his chest, inches away from a deadly blow to his heart.

Speaking of Sasuke, he wondered how he was doing. Was he also in the hospital? If so then he should visit him, to see how he was doing, maybe that might not be a bright idea. After all Sasuke was hospitalized because of him so he will most likely be angry at him. So Naruto just decided to go outside instead.

Naruto made his way to the door and went to open it, but before he could open it, the door opened and in came Sakura.

He was happy to see Sakura. Sakura was Naruto's childhood crush. Naruto always asked out Sakura but she did not accept and always punch Naruto or any other form of abuse. Now that he thinks about it, she was never kind to him and always trying to impress the last Uchiha.

When he looked at Sakura, all he can see in her face is rage.

"Hey Sakura, I told you I'll bring back Sasuke.", however Sakura didn't seem to be paying attention to what he was saying. He opens his mouth to say another word but,

SLAP

The noise of hand meeting cheek was audible and echoed through the tiny white room. The slap Sakura gave left Naruto with a reddening cheek.

"...Sakura?"

SLAP

"Shut up Naruto. Look at what you did to Sasuke. You said that you will bring him back safely and promised on that too, have you seen what you did to him. Lady Tsunade said he had marks of rasengan on his stomach. I knew I shouldn't have trust you, you probably tried to kill him and thought if he died I would finally go on a date with you. Now I know I should have trusted my mum, you _are_ a demon after all. Now don't ever talk to me or Sasuke again, I hope I never have to see your face again." said Sakura angrily then before Naruto could even reply she stormed out of the room. Probably to see her Sasuke-kun.

Normally Naruto wouldn't cry, he had gotten over those years ago. Yet warm tears started to roll down his eyes. Every word Sakura had said hurt; it hurt more than a chidori getting shoved through the heart, that's how each word hit him.

That was the breaking point for Naruto.

Naruto fell on his knees, and then fell backwards and clutched is knees, putting him in a human ball position. He then began to think about things then think them over again.

_'Why can't anyone tell the difference between a kunai and a scroll?'_

_'Will I ever be acknowledged here?'_

_'How can I become the Hokage if everyone thinks I'm a demon, even my teammates think I'm a demon'_

Then the final thought: _'am I really a demon'_

After 10 minutes, which seemed like hours through the eyes of Naruto, he began to get up, slowly recovering from the human ball position.

After getting up he decides to go to Ichiraku's Ramen, the only place that sees him like a human and treats him like a normal person. Some ramen will cheer him up right...? After all it has for the last 13 years.

But before he gets the chance to leave the room he is interrupted once again, only this time it's by an otter masked ANBU.

"Naruto Uzumaki, you are requested by the Hokage to attend the council immediately." said the ANBU, in what seemed like a voice to intimidate people.

Naruto slowly nods his head because he still hasn't recovered from Sakura's verbal beating.

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><p><strong>Konoha - Council Chambers<strong>

Naruto and the otter masked ANBU walked down the corridor leading to a large wooden door the seemed ancient yet it looked strong enough to survive an exploding tag, after all it was made by the first Hokage using his wood release.

They then entered into the council room and he could see a large round table. Along the right side he could see the shinobi council, who is the clan heads of the current major clans, which consisted of; Hiashi Hyuuga, Shikaku Nara, Choza Akimichi, Inoichi Yamanaka, Shibi Aburame, and lastly Tsume Inuzuka. He also notice several empty seats in that line, which he guessed belong to the clans that is now dead or has no representative like Uchiha, Sarutobi, Senju and Namikaze.

Along the left side is the civilian council, he remembered some of them as the wealthy merchants in Konoha. Along the left side sat; Kensaku Choshi, Shibuki Haruno, Gaho Hiro, Toshi Nanami, Tai Yamato and Teuchi Saki.

So overall there were 6 civilian members and 6 shinobi members, there were also the three elders who sat in the middle opposite to the Slug Princess. The three elders were Homura Mitokado, Koharu Utatane who was both Hiruzen Sarutobi's (Sandaime Hokage) team mates. The last of the elder is Danzo Shimura, also known as Shinobi no Yami (The shinobi of darkness), the reason for this is because the old war hawk is always acting from the shadows, one such example is the ROOT programme which was _disbanded_ once the Sandaime heard of the training in the programme, which turns young boys and girls into mindless drones that you call shinobi. His aim was to turn the Kyuubi jinchuuriki into a mindless puppet that obeys him only, but the Sandaime prevented that from happening. He soon realized that his wish can never come true now that Naruto is not as young as he wanted him to be.

Across the table was the Godaime Hokage; Tsunade Senju. A powerful kunoichi in her own rights, she is one of the 3 legendary sannins and also the first ever female Hokage, maybe even the first ever Kage of one of the five major elemental countries. Many young kunoichi and some shinobi look up to her as an idol. She is also the world's best medic; with the help of Katsuyu she can heal an entire army if not distracted.

"Otter thanks for your service; you may leave now." said Tsunade.

"Now can you tell me why this council asked for Naruto to be here, the reports was already given in by Shikamaru." said Tsunade again in a pissed of tone.

*yawn* "Yes I want to know that too, I have my cloud watching to get to with Shikamaru" said (guess who) Shikaku, the lazy Nara, which seems to run through the family.

"Although it isn't the same reason as Shikaku, I would like to know as well, Choji is still in the hospital and I want to go visit my son." said the big-boned Akimichi; Choza.

"The reason is quite simple really, it's about the battle between Uchiha-Sama and the demon stood in front of us today." said Gaho, a fat, wealthy merchant who bought himself into the council, and like many people he lost his wife and two children in the Kyuubi attack 13 years ago, so he still blames Naruto for this.

The air suddenly dropped below 0 degrees and all attention fell towards Tsunade.

"The last time I checked, the Sandaime's law is still in place, so unless you want to spend some time with Ibiki and Anko I suggest following the laws." said an even more pissed off Tsunade.

"H-H-Hai Hokage-Sama!" said the man fearfully. Everyone knew who Ibiki was, heck even shinobi from outside of Konoha knew him, his reputation as 'The Mind Destroyer' can easily scare anyone. He can get an enemy shinobi to spill secrets with 1 hour. And his new assistant doesn't exactly keep anyone calm. The 'Snake Mistress' of Konoha is always looking for a way to spill some blood so her job at the torture and interrogation department suits her the best. With Ibiki and Anko together they can easily break anyone, be it mentally... or physically.

"Enough of this, we called this council meeting because Uchiha-Sama reported that Naruto accessed the kyuubi's chakra and tried to kill him. "Said Koharu.

"How is that a big deal, knowing Sasuke he probably used the cursed mark and tried to kill Naruto. There is scars on Naruto's chest that can only be made with a chidori, and not only that but there is two of that!" said Tsunade clearly not happy with the way the council is going right now.

"But that's because of the cursed mark, Uchiha-Sama can't control his mind with that, it was even reported by Jiraiya-Sama when he took a look at the seal before the chunin exams." Said Kensaku.

"That doesn't mean he didn't have control at all. Jiraiya-Sama put a 4 point suppression seal on the cursed mark, and the only way it can be broken is if Sasuke decides to use the cursed mark." Said Shikaku this time, clearly not in his bored and sleepy mode and in full serious, because he could feel there is more to this than it seems. Like the civilians have already planned something and it's not going to end well.

"But that does not change the fact that thing there, used the kyuubi's chakra, and it could just be the beginning, the Kyuubi may start to break free. I think there is only one solution to this..."contributed Danzo, and the whole council had been paying attention to this, as it isn't every day the old war hawk suggests something unless it's for his own gain.

"...we banish him from Konoha." finished Danzo calmly, like it's an everyday thing.

That must have been the spark that ignited the flame, because the whole council was in an argument of whether to banish him or not. Even the always stoic Hiashi Hyuuga tried to say they shouldn't banish Naruto.

However the person who was affected by this more than anyone was Naruto. It felt like they had taken the air out of the room because suddenly he found it hard to even breathe. His whole life he had wanted nothing more than to become the Hokage, but now it won't happen. All because the village was too stupid to tell the difference between a kunai and the scroll it's sealed in.

"SILENCE!" shouted the slug princess. Suddenly everyone's attention fell to her.

"We are not banishing Naruto and that's final!"

"We can actually banish him..."said Danzo with a knowing smirk. However Tsunade didn't like where this is going at all and Danzo's smirk didn't make it any better, especially since he is a man that shows no emotions.

"... a law made by Nidaime, allows the council to overrule a Hokage's decision if said council had majority of the votes."

"That's a lie, you're lying!" said Tsunade, although the words were to convince herself.

"I'm not lying. So now I call for a vote, how wishes to banish _Naruto Uzumaki_" Danzo said, bitterly, ever since he didn't get to _train_ him he had despised the boy, it didn't help that he also followed the 'Will Of Fire' crap Hiruzen always went on about.

"Well then, I Hiashi Hyuuga vote against the banishment."

"I Shikaku Nara also votes against the banishment." said Shikaku as he sent a smile towards Naruto, who seem to be zoned out of this.

"I Choza Akimichi, vote against the banishment"

"I'm with Choza and Shikaku, I Inoichi Yamanaka vote against the banishment"

"This village is blinded by hatred, I Tsume Inuzuka vote against the banishment"

"I, Shibi Aburame vote against the banishment"

"Of course I Tsunade Senju vote against the banishment"

At this point all the civilian council members were smirking because if the rest of the council (civilians and elders) vote for the banishment then the demon will be gone at last.

"I Kensaku Choshi, vote for the banishment"

"I Shibuki Haruno, vote for the banishment"

"I Toshi Nanami, vote for the banishment"

"I Tai Yamato, vote for the banishment"

"I Teuchi Saki, vote for the banishment"

"I Homura Mitokado, vote for the banishment"

"I Koharu Utatane, vote for the banishment"

"I don't think that I need to vote any more, as the votes have already shown the results" said Danzo.

And everyone knew that was the truth, because there were seven votes against the banishment and eight votes for the banishment so there was no point for Danzo to vote any more.

Tsunade didn't know what to do, her vision started to get blurry and fresh warm tears started to roll down her cheeks.

"I'm sorry Naruto, I don't know what to do." she said trying her best not to cry.

"There is also another matter that must be taken care of before the banishment, Naruto must cut his ties with the toad summoning. We need to find Jiraiya for this as he is the one carrying the toad summoning contract." said Danzo again. Not only has he made it possible to banish Naruto, but he is also taking away everything from him.

"You can't do that. Isn't banishing him enough?" said Tsunade in a slightly pleading tone.

However Danzo wasn't having any of that so he replied; "Yes we can, the Nidaime's law clearly state that when being banished that person must cut all ties with Konoha and that includes the toad summoning, who has stayed loyal to Konoha for 2 generations."

Whilst this was happening no one seemed to see that Naruto hasn't spoken a single word. The usually loud and hot headed blonde that shouts how he will become the Hokage was so silent; it would have put the Aburames to shame.

"Yeah, take away the contract and give it to Sasuke- Sama", screeched Shibuki.

Tsunade couldn't take it anymore and did what anyone would have in her position, she cried. She cried openly in front of the council, whilst the shinobi side could tell Naruto meant so much to her, the civilian side was having other thoughts. They were happy because they thought that the new Hokage was under their control. The person that was the most happiest was Danzo, he will remember this and one day use it to show their Hokage was weak and try to get the position himself.

Naruto couldn't take it anymore and did what everyone was least expecting.

He bit his thumb and went through five sets of hand seals at a speed that the civilians couldn't follow but the shinobi knew that they were the seals for...

**"Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Technique)"** Naruto said in a hollow voice that sounded like it had been through the shinobi wars and lost all off their family.

There was a puff of smoke and when it dispersed you can see a small green toad blinking like he was surprised to be summoned , then he took a look at the surrounding.

"Ahh, you must be our new summoner Naruto-kun, Bunta-kun has told me all about you. I'm quite impressed that you managed to defeat the Ichibi jinchuuriki." Fukasaku said proudly.

"That's a lie. We all know Uchiha-sama defeated the Ichibi" screeched the howler monkey again.

Most the council had to cover their ears to prevent it from becoming deaf.

"Well I don't know who told you that but clearly someone had given you the false information. Anyway moving on to matters at hand; why have you summoned me Naruto-kun?" asked the old toad.

"I would like to break the contract with the toads." Naruto declared in a monotone voice that caused many people in the council to flinch including the stoic Aburame.

"WHAT!" said the old toad, clearly taken back by this reply. Never, had any summoners told they wanted to break their contract, especially the when the summoning we are talking about is the well-known powerful toad clan.

"What he means is, he is getting banished from Konoha and that means cutting all ties with the village, including summoning." Danzo said in a voice that betrayed all emotions.

It took a moment to process the information given. He then looked around and saw that all faces showed full seriousness so he knew it wasn't a joke. His eyes then landed on Naruto. It seemed like the poor boy had gone through so much. His eyes told it all, he was easily able to tell anger, sad, betrayal, and more negative emotions were going through it.

"I won't do it." declared the old toad. He had seen enough to come to a conclusion.

"You have no choice in it" said Danzo;

"You can either break the contract with Naruto or you will have to break the contract with Jiraiya."

"I refuse. There is no law among any summons that make them select one over the other, neither can you make us break our contract. If that is all, I will take my leave." He finished and was about to leave however it seems not everyone was done.

"Fukasaku-sama, can you break the contract. I wish to have no more ties that hold me down to Konoha." Naruto said with a monotone voice which made the ones who truly knew him really sad.

"I would give back the Kyuubi too if I could." He finished, shocking most of the members sat there, and causing a few to gasp at it.

With great sorrow Fukasaku then said; "I'm sorry Naruto-kun, but it seems I'm left with no other choice; you can no longer be our summoner.", with that said Fukasaku then went through some hand seals and summoned a large scroll which most assumed was the contract of the toads. He opened the same scroll and quickly scanned it then stopped when he saw the name of one Naruto Uzumaki. He then looked at Naruto one last time before going through another set of hand seals only this time his time green hands began to have a white glow to it. He then placed his hands on the name and said;

"Kai!"

The name slowly started to fade until there was no name on it.

He then turned to the council.

"You have no idea what you have done today. The child of prophecy would either bring peace to the world or destroy it altogether."

After saying what he had to he looked at Naruto for the last time before apologizing to him and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

There was a long silence in the council then it was broken by Koharu, who said;

"_You _have to leave Konoha by the end of tomorrow."

"That's enough, I think you all got what you wanted now leave before someone ends up in the hospital." shouted Tsunade as she was not going to let this go on for any longer.

Begrudgingly all the members made it out the door. Then there was just Tsunade and Naruto left.

Tsunade turned the sad teen and said; "Don't worry Naruto, believe in me. I will find a way around it and keep you in Konoha. Don't give up, isn't that your nindo?" she said with small smile.

Naruto just replies with a nod and walks out the door.

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><p><strong>Time skip- next day<strong>

**Konoha- Library**

Currently sitting in the politics section of the library is our favourite busty Hokage.

_"I finally found it. There is a loop around this law, now I can go and tell Naruto this and finally see him smile. Now to find Naruto, knowing him he's probably at Ichiraku's ramen or at a training ground."_

She got up and went to her first location; Ichiraku's ramen. Surprisingly he wasn't there,

_"Guess he must be at the training ground then"_

**2 hours**

_"I wonder where he is. He isn't at the ramen stand or any training grounds"_

Naruto isn't the one to wake up late now days. He usually gets up and goes to eat ramen for breakfast or go and train till the afternoon. She then walked up to his apartment and knocked on the door.

"Naruto. It's me Tsunade, I have some good news. You don't have to leave Konoha, the council can't banish you."

After a few moments Tsunade's shinobi side kicked in, she sensed there was something wrong so she kicked the door open and looked inside for Naruto. But what she saw made her realize that she was probably too late. Most of Naruto's clothes were gone, as was the food (guess what it is... yup ramen), and what made her cry was the sight of the Shodai's necklace on top of a piece of paper which she assumed was a letter.

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><p><strong>Meanwhile<strong>

**Outskirts of Hi no Kuni (Land of Fire)**

_"I hope what you say is true Kurama."_

**_"Don't worry about; it's the only place where you will be safe for now, Naruto."_**

_"... Naruto is no longer alive; the Naruto everyone knew is now dead."_

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><p><strong>The story is back :)<strong>_  
><em>

**I have decided to continue this because even if I take a while to update, its so much better then not updating at all.**

**The first 6 chapters have already been written, but before I upload them Im going to proof read and add any things just to make it even more awesome!**

**To the people that is new to this story: I had already written this story before and just couldnt think of what to write and had a poor update speed. I then decided to take it down saying It will only be up again when Im ready to write again, and I am now.**

**It was previously uploaded on a different account of mine, but I decided to create a new one. **

**So here it is now.**

**Review what you think and I will respond to you. I have already written the next few chapters but that doesnt mean I cant change it, so tell me what you want to see, what you dont want. If there is improvement you want to see etc.**

**Also a beta ready would be really helpful. Any volunteers? **

**Review :D**

**Update: 05/01/2015**


	2. An unexpected turn

**Disclaimer- I don't own Naruto and I probably won't, but can't tell for sure. All rights go to Masashi Kishimoto, (who in case you don't know, owns Naruto)**

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><p><strong>Nine Sides of a Mask<strong>

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><p><em>Chapter 2: An unexpected turn<em>

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><p><strong>Konoha- 10 hours ago<strong>

After the council meeting finished, Naruto left the building, slowly walking out of there whilst looking at the floor which had captured his current attention, and walked where his feet took him.

He passed the place where he was first acknowledged; Ninja Academy. This is the place Iruka Umino, chunin teacher teaches the future generation of Konoha shinobi.

He then passed the wooden stump in training ground 7, where his _team_ was taught the value of _teamwork_.

He passed several shops that always pushes him out of it or overcharge him by at least 200% and thats on a good day, and he came to his apartment.

His apartment wasn't exactly the best place. It was located in the poorer part of Konoha, next to the markets. The building itself was a weak small building. He wondered how it hasn't come down yet. The place was a small and simple home for him, it had a living room with a small sofa with 3 seats and an equally small table by its side. There was a satisfactory kitchen, not that he uses it much anyway, all he needs is boiling water and a bowl and ramen he is happy. The kitchen was filled with empty ramen cups on the floor and in the cupboards there was unopened ramen cups everywhere. The bathroom wasn't too bad, it was big enough for him to have a shower comfortably. And lastly his bedroom, there was a single bed and an side table where his alarm clock (which, coincidentally is toad shaped alarm clock) was sat on.

He made his way to the bed and lied down on it. He then thought about what had occurred today; from how Sakura had slapped him and told him to never see her again, to how he had been banished by the very place he swore to protect.

Naruto closed his eyes for a brief moment and opened it again, only this time he wasn't in his room anymore. He recognised where he was the moment he saw the rusty only pipes sticking along the wall, going to no end through the corridor. He was in his mindscape. He wasn't trying to get here so that only leaves one other option; the kyuubi called him here. He made his way towards the cage whilst pondering on the possible reasons for why he has been summoned here.

After a few minutes he made it to a _very _large room with an equally large gate. The large gate seemed to be held by a piece of paper that had the kanji for "Seal" on it, so it wasn't hard to piece together what was behind the gate. As he looked past the gate and into the cage he can see a pair of blood red eyes with vertically slit pupil, looking intensely at him.

"What do you want? Can't you see I'm not in the mood right now. It's because of you I'm in this situation. You have already caused me so much pain and suffering.."

**"WILL YOU SHUT UP!" **kyuubi roared, which achieved its aim and caused Naruto to shut up.

**"I know you have been suffering. I know you are angry right now but don't let that cloud your judgement, otherwise you will become just like the villagers, who can't tell the difference between me and you." **kyuubi said angrily.

Naruto just stood there. He didn't know what to feel, on one side he was angry because kyuubi was comparing him to the ignorant villagers, but he was also shocked. Here stood the almighty kyuubi, that can level mountains and cause tsunamis with a swing of its tails. The almighty kyuubi... and he was sympathizing with Naruto.

Kyuubi then continued;

**"I know that you have been banished, you had your dreams taken away from you. I'm inside you so I know whats going on, on the outside. But just because they took away your dream of becoming hokage doesn't mean you can't have another dream. The reason why summoned you here is because of the banishment. I have seen you suffer and be hurt long enough, so I've decided to help you a bit." **the kyuubi said calmly now, and without any anger.

Naruto broke out of his shock and started to think about this logically. What the kyuubi said is true,just because they took away his dream of becoming Hokage doesn't mean he can't have another dream or as stupid as it sounds he could even become the Hokage another way. To be Hokage means you have to protect the village from all harm, so he can still protect his village from the outside and still become Hokage... right...?

"How do I know you're not planning something to break out of the cage? After all, throughout history you have been seen as an evil and cunning being." stated Naruto.

Kyuubi then grinned, Naruto had finally come out of his pitiful state.

**"So you did pay attention in school. Well I guess there is no guarantee, all you can do is trust me and the Yondaime's seal."**

Naruto then thought over this again and again, thinking about what the best choice would be. Sure he can't trust the kyuubi, he could be leading him to his end or for a change kyuubi might actually be helping him for once. After all what has he got to lose, he had already lost everything.

"Fine I'll accept your help." Naruto said reluctantly.

**"Ok then. Firstly, I will tell you where we can go. There is a place that only nine beings know of in this world. We will go there for now, it's the safest place to be, and it will protect us from the akatsuki and other dangers since you aren't strong enough to fight them let alone defeat them."**

Naruto stood there not knowing how to react. He had thought that when the kyuubi said he will help, kyuubi was only going to give him some chakra when he was in danger, not tell him where to go, especially a secret location that is only known to nine beings with kyuubi being one of them.

"Fine but first I need to leave a letter for baa-chan, and I want to give back her necklace."

After a few minutes Naruto had finished the letter and began packing everything he needed for the long trip ahead.

"Ok kyuubi, let's go!" declared Naruto.

**"Kit, since I'm going to be stick here for a while you can just call me by my name. Call me Kurama."**

"Alright Kurama. Let's go."

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><p><strong>Present time<strong>

**Outskirts of Hi no Kuni (Land of fire)**

"I hope what you say is true Kurama."

**"Don't worry it's the only place where you will be safe for now, Naruto"**

"... Naruto is no longer alive; the Naruto everyone knew is now dead." Naruto stated with a new attitude that surprised Kurama a little bit.

"From now on it will be Menma!"

**"Alright, but let's talk about names later. We have company and all I can sense from them is negative feelings." **Kurama said in a quickly.

**"Wait!" **Kurama said with a calculating look.

**"This is a golden opportunity to deceive the world."**

"I don't follow you. What do you mean?" asked Naruto, showing his stupidity side again.

**"I know a jutsu that allows the user to make a clone that does not disappear after its defeat. Instead it dies like an actual human being. However only four bijuus can use it as it consumes five tails worth of chakra! With this jutsu I can have the people following us kill the clone and therefore word will get around of 'your' death. Then we won't have anyone chasing after us." **Kyuubi said, showing why he was recorded as a cunning fox.

"Although that's a good idea, I don't really see the point of it. You said it yourself, the place we're going to is not known by many people." Naruto said.

**"Well think of it as an extra insurance. If the world believes we're dead then the Akatsuki won't be on our tails (A/N: would this be a pun? if it is then it's not intended)." **Kyuubi said with his voice rising a bit because of Naruto's stupidity.

"Guess that's true. Ok, so how do I do this jutsu?"

**"You can't you don't have the chakra required and you don't know how to use my chakra to use the jutsu, ...so the only way around it is to let me control your body for a minute." **Kyuubi said a little bit nervously because he knew what Naruto's answer will be, but didn't show it otherwise his reputation will be destroyed.

"No!" stated Naruto stubbornly.

"I won't let you do it. You would probably do something to free yourself or something else."

**"Now is not the time to be arguing, besides what can I possibly do, it's not like there is someone around to kill. And I can't harm you without it leaving an impact on me." **Kyuubi said quickly because he could now feel a 3rd person faintly in the vicinity, and unlike the first two presence this one seemed really powerful.

Naruto thought over this, and with no other option he gave in.

"Fine, but how do I let you become in control?"

**"That's simple. All you have to do is stop resisting my chakra and when you have enough I can come in control of your body." **said Kyuubi, to which Naruto simply nodded.

**"Ok I will start now."**

As soon as Kurama had said that Naruto felt his whole body burning and soon his body began to be enveloped in orange chakra. He started to grow chakra tails and with each tail his chakra darkened. After the first few tails and excruciating pain, Naruto fainted and Kyuubi came in control of the body. There in the middle of the open field stood Naruto with six tails dancing with the wind whilst Kurama went through a several dozens of hand seals then smashed his palm to the ground whilst screaming:

**"Kuchiyose: Chi Bunshin no Jutsu (Summoning: Blood clone Jutsu)" **Then there was a plume of red smoke. As the crimson smoke died down, there stood next to Kurama, who now only had one tail, was a clone of Naruto. Only he had none of kyuubi's chakra around him.

Kurama looked at the newly born clone and said:

**"You know what to do."**, to which the clone simply nodded and went in the direction of the two incomers.

Kurama, who is still in control of Naruto's body decided to head off towards their location because it would take a while for Naruto to wake up from his mental sleep.

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile: with the other clone<strong>

The new Naruto clone was heading towards the presence of the two newcomers when he felt the third presence coming closely behind the two. He could feel them coming close so he decided to stop in an open field which was a perfect location for a battle. He knew that if he had to die in this battle he would have to make it believable therefore fight till his full capacity.

After stopping he 'unpacked for some ramen'. Naruto was boiling his ramen and getting his chopsticks ready on his hand when a short kodachi passed through him drawing his blood on its way. The short sword wielder had a satisfaction of finishing their mission quickly and easily until 'Naruto' exploded in a grey cloud of smoke.

**"Rasengan!"** shouted Naruto, who had jumped from his hiding spot and pressed a rasengan against one of the two members. As soon as he had done that he regretted his decision because very small black bugs started to spread throughout his hand. He looked at the two figures stood on front of him. The one he had hit with his rasengan was on the ground but dispersed into bugs. He had seen how Shino fight and knows enough knowledge of the clans in Konoha to know that was an Aburame. The second figure stood beside the dispersed swarm of insects with a black cloak and a plain white mask on his face. If you look closely you would be able to see a kanji for "NE" on the top corner of the mask.

After seeing that his plans had failed he quickly tried to think of another plan, however sharp pain started to spread throughout his body. When he looked at his hands he saw the insects starting to spread through his arm. He panicked because the pain was too much and he didn't know what to do. An idea then formed inside his head and without wasting a second he channelled the kyuubi's chakra to his arm. His arm then became surrounded in orange chakra and the bugs started to fall from his arm. He smiled because he had taken care of one problem, but fell on his knees because using the little kyuubi's chakra he had without the Kyuubi was not easy and that alone had used up 80 percent of his chakra.

Without being told the two NE members rushed at the Naruto who was now on the floor trying to get up. The one with the mask unsheathed his sword and slashed Naruto's back. The Aburame simply got close and released some of his bugs which then captured Naruto in a spherical shape. The bugs started to drain the little chakra he had and he also started to lose a lot of blood.

Naruto couldn't take it anymore and closed his eyes. He soon found it hard to breathe and fell flat on the floor.

The masked NE member walked up to Naruto gingerly and checked his hands for any pulse. When he couldn't feel any he got up and simply nodded to his partner. The Aburame didn't need to be told twice. He understood the meaning behind that and quickly fled from the place because they felt another person coming that way.

A few minutes later a big man dropped from the trees and quickly rushed towards Naruto's corpse. Now he wasn't a medic nin but after feeling Naruto's wrist for any pulse, he knew Naruto was dead.

He started to cry. He was crying loudly and couldn't help but be feel he was part of Naruto's death. After all if your godson had just died and you couldn't do anything to help wouldn't you start blaming yourself?

"Why? Naruto why? I'm sorry Minato, Kushina, now I can never face you again." cried the White Haired Sannin.

"WHY!? NARUTO! I'm sorry... it was all my fault. If I was here then you wouldn't have been banished. I was going to take you with me, on the training trip, I was going to show you the world." cried the man. He couldn't stop crying no matter what.

He got up and sealed Naruto's deceased body into a large red scroll.

At least he should tell Tsunade, after all she hadn't been doing ever since Naruto's banishment.

* * *

><p><strong>Konoha<strong>

Currently in the Hokage's office sat a drunken Tsunade. There were bottles of sake everywhere. Even Shizune, who usually stops Tsunade from getting drunk, decided it was best not to disturb Tsunade let alone stop her from drinking any sake. Ever since Naruto had run off and left the letter and Shodaime's necklace for her, she had been doing nothing but drink. Of course no one knew what was in the letter except Tsunade.

Tsunade had only seen Jiraiya today, and Shizune. She hasn't seen or talked to anyone except them two. Naturally Jiraiya wasn't happy when he had heard Naruto was banished and immediately left to go look for him. She had never seen Jiraiya that angry before.

She was just about to help herself to another glass of sake when she heard a thud behind her. She turned behind quickly, only to see a sad and tearful Jiraiya. She knew that whatever he had found it was not going to be good.

"Tsunade..." There was a long pause. Jiraiya didn't know how to say it to her.

"Tsunade. Naruto is dead." Stated Jiraiya. And as expected, Tsunade started to cry as well. Like she had been for almost the last 24 hours.

"Please Jiraiya. Please tell me that isn't the truth." pleaded Tsunade.

Jiraiya took out his big red scroll, and laid it out on the floor before unsealing it. Then Naruto's dead body lied there on the floor, only for Tsunade to to start shaking. She didn't know what to do. There laid in front of her was her surrogate grandson. Then she came out of her shock and checked Naruto, after all she was the best medic in the world. So she could still save Naruto...

After activating her medical jutsu her hands started glowing green. She then ran her hands all over Naruto's body to check for even the slightest bit of life.

Half an hour later she still couldn't find any life in Naruto.

"Tsunade, I think that is enough. We both know there is no way for him to be saved anymore. He is dead. At least now he can finally meet his parents that he never had. Tsunade stop!"

"NO! He is still alive. I know it, if I stop now then he will die." said Tsunade, who was still trying to bring Naruto back to life when he was dead.

"Stop it Tsunade. You can stop. There is no other way around this; I failed him as a godfather. I can never face Minato or Kushina. Not anymore. Not ever."

Tsunade stopped and looked at Jiraiya. Sure Naruto was close to her but nowhere near as he was to Jiraiya. After all whether he was his godfather.

"I guess the least we can do is give him a hero's funeral, and announce to the stupid villagers exactly who his parents was." Tsunade said trying to help out Jiraiya and herself.

"At least we can do that." said Jiraiya, and although you can not see it, there was a faint smile.

* * *

><p><strong>Unknown location<strong>

Naruto started to wake up from his mental exhaustion. He slowly opened his eyes allowing it to adapt to its new environment. As he opened his eyes he could only see green everywhere. The whole place was covered in green grass and a big waterfall. There was a small hut near the waterfall, but the most unusual thing about this place was the altitude of it. He was on top of a mountain he guessed and a very tall point as well because he could literally feel clouds floating besides him.

"Where are we?" questioned Naruto.

**"Kit we are at the 'Eye of the world' (1)" **Stated Kurama, proudly.

**"Naruto. What do you know of the Rikudo Sannin?" **Asked Kurama.

"Well, I have heard of his name in class but I don't remember" said Naruto, dumbly.

**_'Well I'm definitely going to have to make him smarter. He is not exactly the brightest jinchuuriki.'_**thought Kurama.

**"Kit, the Rikudo Sannin is the most powerful ninja to have ever lived. He was the creator of ninjutsu. He possessed the doujutsu that is said to be a myth but I know first-hand it isn't. There was once a time where a tailed beast more powerful than my lived. No one could stand up to the beast and on day an ordinary man fought against the beast and sealed it into himself therefore making him the very first jinchuuriki. He was the jinchuuriki of the Juubi, also known as the ten tails. However when his time was coming to an end he knew the Juubi would try to escape, which is why he came here and separated the Juubi into nine beings that you now know as the nine tailed beasts. This location is my birthplace and only known to the nine tailed beasts. The reason why he called it the eye of the world was because with his rinnegan he could see the whole world from the peak."**

"..." Naruto didn't know what to say. He was shocked. This was the place where Kurama was born and also the very place where the Rikudo Sannin died. Before he could think more, he was forced out of is shock when suddenly the waterfall came crashing down. He turned behind him to see the waterfall, only to see the water falling more and quickly as well as a shadowy figure getting bigger in the waterfall. It got bigger and bigger until the figure walked out of the waterfall. Of course he didn't know who it was, but Kurama did.

**"Father..."**

* * *

><p><strong>(1) - This is an idea I got from Skyrim. For those of you that played it you know there is a place called 'Throat of the World'. Well this is a similar name.<strong>

**Update: 05/01/2015**


	3. Legacy of a God

**Disclaimer- I don't own Naruto and I probably won't, but can't tell for sure. All rights go to Masashi Kishimoto, (who incase you don't know, owns Naruto)**

* * *

><p><strong>Previously:<strong>

**_"Kit, the Rikudo Sannin is the most powerful ninja to have ever lived. He was the creator of ninjutsu. He possessed the doujutsu that is said to be a myth but I know first hand it isn't. There was once a time where a tailed beast more powerful than my lived. No one could stand up to the beast and one day an ordinary man fought against the beast and sealed it into himself therefore making him the very first jinchuuriki. He was the jinchuuriki of the Juubi, also known as the ten tails. However when his time was coming to an end he knew the Juubi would try to escape, which is why he came here and separated the Juubi into nine beings that you now know as the nine tailed beasts. This location is my birthplace and only known to the nine tailed beasts. The reason why he called it the eye of the world was because with his rinnegan he could see the whole world from the peak."_**

_"..." Naruto didn't know what to say. He was shocked. This was the place where Kurama was born and also the very place where the Rikudo Sannin died. Before he could think more, he was forced out of his shock when suddenly the waterfall came crashing down. He turned behind him to see the waterfall, only to see the water falling more and quickly as well as a shadowy figure getting bigger in the waterfall. It got bigger and bigger until the figure walked out of the waterfall. Of course he didn't know who it was, but Kurama did._

**_"Father..."_**

* * *

><p><strong>Nine sides of a Mask<strong>

* * *

><p><strong><em>Chapter 3: Legacy of a God<em>**

* * *

><p><strong>Currently - Eye of the world<strong>

**_"Father..."_**

There stood a man who looked like he was in his late thirties. He was about 6'1" and had black hair. He wore an necklace around his neck with six tomoes on it. He wore a silver plate armour which reminded Naruto of the Shodaime and Nidaime because they wore similar clothing on the pictures he saw in the Hokage's office. The most intriguing thing about this man was his eyes. It was silver with the pupil being black and there was ripples going from the inside. He then started to think of what Kurama just said;...

"Father?... WAIT! Thats the Rikudo Sennin! Is he a ghost? I thought he died!" Naruto said quickly because there was so many thoughts running through his head right now. After all it isn't everyday you see the man known as a god.

"Yes, that is me. Although my name is Hagoromo Otsutsuki. You can call me Hagoromo, Naruto or should I say Menma, and how are you Kurama-kun." The Sennin said in a soft voice that seemed like it could calm any enraged person even Tsunade without sake for a week.

Now normally Naruto would have been on the floor laughing because someone had called the 'Great Kyuubi' Kurama-kun. If it wasn't for the fact that the legendary Sennin who had lived long before the formation of clans and start of the shinobi wars knew Naruto's name then he might have been laughing.

**_"Can you hear me tou-san?"_**asked Kurama meekly.

"Yes I can Kurama-kun." replied the old Sage.

**_"You died, so how are you still alive."_**

"What you say is the truth. I did die but I'm not exactly alive right now either. What you are seeing is a part of my true soul. There is a limit to how long I will be like this though. I will tell you why I am here now."

If Naruto and Kurama wasn't already doing it, they were now giving all of their attention to them.

"As you may or may not know my eyes; the rinnegan has lots of powers, even I don't know it to its full potential." Hagoromo said shocking both Naruto and Kurama, because both of them thought _the _Rikudo Sennin would've known all of the secrets behind the rinnegan. Kurama was beyond shocked because his father had defeated the Juubi when he didn't even use the full power of the rinnegan.

"One of its powers allowed me to look into the future." Stated Hagoromo, further shocking Naruto and Kurama because with power like that one can easily avoid death as they can see their death.

"That is the reason why I divided the Juubi into nine parts; Shukaku, Matatabi, Isobu, Son Goku, Kokuo, Saiken, Chomei, Gyuki and finally Kurama. In one of my visions, I saw the Juubi attacking the world again so I separated its powers into nine parts. I also saw that it will be me stopping it, and as my visions showed me it did happen, however it is going to happen again. It will also be up to me to stop the Juubi,... or shall I say it will be up to my legacy to stop it. You Naruto. I don't know if you believe in reincarnation but you are my reincarnation. It will be up to you to stop the Juubi when it rises again."

Naruto didn't know what to think, the Rikudo Sennin had just said he was his reincarnation. Not only that but he will have to defeat the Juubi when it rises again. He was thinking so much he didn't even notice the Sennin move.

The creator of ninjutsu walked slowly to Naruto and put his hand on Naruto's head and whispered;

**"Ningendo (Human Path)"**

Naruto's head started to get fuzzy and after about ten seconds Hagoromo took his hand.

"It seems my prediction was right. I have seen your past and it has been correct so far. Naruto you must become strong enough to battle Juubi when it rises which is why I'm going to train you for the next three years. You currently have no where to go and you are weak so we can stay here and train." Hagoromo sated harshly.

Naruto could only nod, he had to admit that he was weak. After all he didn't know anything. The only useful skills he had was making a rasengan, climbing trees with chakra and stealth which he taught himself with lots of practice from pranks.

The Sage then continued;

"From now on you will call me Hagoromo-sensei. But before we begin anything there is a piece I must put into the puzzle. I will return Kurama's Yin side to him." Hagoromo stated and smiled because he knew Kurama will also be happy right now knowing he will be full again.

The Rikudo Sennin then started to concentrate and and calmly said;

**"Jigokudo."**

Then a head of a man started to rise from the ground. Normally only the summoner can see this but since Hagoromo didn't want to hide anything he decided to make The King of Hell visible. Once the King got to about shoulder height on the floor he stopped and opened his mouth to an incredible level. A black orb started to form outside his mouth similar to how a rasengan forms on a the palm of the hand. When the black orb was formed it shot off into the sky and split into nine separate parts. The nine parts started to fall down and head towards Naruto, one by one they all entered Naruto forcefully and left him with lots of pain.

At first he screamed because the pain was unlike anything he has ever experienced before, then eventually he couldn't take the pain and fainted.

Hagoromo however was slightly worried, in his vision he had not seen this happen, somehow it had changed. He walked to Naruto and picked him up, Naruto's temperature was really high and he was now even more worried. He took him to his small hut and laid him on the bed.

* * *

><p><strong>Konoha - Council chambers<strong>

Currently sitting in the council was all of the members except for one, Danzo was for some reason missing from the room. He was always punctual and never late to a council session.

Tsunade was sat on her seat and she had red eyes which showed she has been crying recently. Behind her was Jiraiya who also looked like he had been better.

Just as Tsunade was about to start the council meeting because she couldn't wait for Danzo; the very person walks in. Danzo walked into the council happily because of the news he had heard from his Root members. He already knew what this meeting was going to be about.

"Now that Danzo has arrived we can finally start this meeting." Tsunade said bitterly, especially when she said Danzo.

"I called this meeting because the legacy of one of our Hokage has recently died." she said, trying her best not to cry.

"I'm sorry Hokage-sama but none of the Hokage's legacy is dead. And the last time I checked Asuma was fine." said Inoichi.

"It's true that Asuma is fine however I'm not talking about him. I'm talking about the very person this council had banished recently. The son of Minato Namikaze."

"We didn't banish the Hokage's son! He never had a son, only a relationship with that red haired bitch!" screamed the pink haired harpie.

However not everyone was acting like Shibuki, Hiashi was thinking about this logically and trying to put the piece together. It was a well known fact among his peers that Minato liked Kushina Uzumaki and the fact Naruto was banished recently means he had to be their son. It would also explains why Kushina wasn't seen around the village much a few months before the kyuubi attack.

It also made him angry because Naruto was like niece to him because Minato was his best friend through childhood and through their ninja careers, it was also because of Minato that he got married to Hana. Minato was more like a brother to him than anything.

"Just to make it clear to all of you ignorant fools. My students son was Naruto Uzumaki, or should I say my godson; Naruto Namikaze Uzumaki." stated Jiraiya who couldn't stand these council members trying to deny a simple fact.

"But how is that possible? Yondaime-sama never got married let alone have any child." said Tai Yamato,one of the wealthy merchant.

"It's true however their marriage was kept secret and Naruto's parentage was also kept secret, because if other elemental nations such as Iwa then I think they would have done what you did well before he even became a gennin." Jiraiya said sadly and angrily because even though the secret was kept his godson was still killed.

"I was there when they got married." Jiraiya added.

Now everyone was starting to think of what they had done. They were not thinking that they had finally got rid of the demon, but rather they had killed they last heir of the Namikaze. Even Danzo was thinking it then he thought of what he had missed; the vault in the Namikaze's house. It was previously owned by Minato and it was known to a few members of the council what was in there; there are lots of jutsus scrolls ranging from D ranks to S ranks and of course there is also the scroll for the technique that allowed Minato Namikaze to become the Yellow Flash of Konoha, Hirashin. If he could get his hands on them then he could build an unstoppable Root army, only no one can get in, even Jiraiya because of all the complicated seals around it. The only way in is through the main gate where you had to spread your blood across the seal, but it only allows the blood of Minato and his relatives in...

"Do you have Naruto's body? I think we should give him a proper hero's funeral." Danzo said. And a few people in the council nodded their heads whilst the others still had their heads down because they felt shame for what they have done.

"We do but we will be doing a private funeral with only a few selected people. It's because we don't want anyone finding his body and using his blood to get into the Namikaze's house." Tsunade said impassively because she and Jiraiya had already talked about the possible consequence of revealing his heritage.

"But we should at least be invited to his funeral." Danzo said again not giving up.

"I want to say I'm sorry for what I did."

"It's a bit too late for that Danzo. From what I heard you're the one that said Naruto should be banished." Jiraiya said angrily. The man who was responsible for Naruto's death wanted to say sorry. Like he would believe that, Danzo probably wanted to know where Naruto was buried so that he can dig him up and use his blood to get into the Namikaze's vault.

"If you do want to say sorry to him then you can go to the memorial stone because we're making a statue dedicated to a genin that tried to prove he was not the kyuubi and the council who couldn't tell the difference between a seal and a kunai banished him; where he died." said Tsunade.

"Now council dismissed!" she said again and with that she and Jiraiya walked out of there; to her office because she had yet another meeting only this time it wasn't the council but Naruto's friends.

* * *

><p><strong>Konoha - Hokage's office<strong>

Currently in the office were the rookie 9 minus Naruto and with them was also Team Gai. They had been called by Hokage and when they saw all of these genins here they knew it had to be something important.

"So what do you think this meeting is about?" asked Kiba who obviously didn't understand it was something important.

Akamaru just continued to sit on his head and barked in response.

"Yeah your right boy, where is Naruto?" said Kiba who had only just noticed Naruto was missing. Of course he wasn't the only one to notice it. Shikamaru, Neji and Hinata had already noticed this and they thought this meeting had to be about him.

"We can answer that." said Jiraiya who had just walked into the office. By him walked Tsunade who was just pissed off after the council meeting. She was hoping at least Naruto's friends would react better than them.

"Jiraiya-sama!" said most of the genins. Of course there was one who did not allow his pride to be crushed so he just 'hmmm'ed like the brooding Uchiha he is.

"So everyone is here." Tsunade said as she looked around and saw that all of Naruto's peers was here.

"We called you here because of a sad news regarding Naruto." Tsunade slowly said trying to find the right words for this.

Now most of Naruto's friend was worried, all except from Sakura and Sasuke.

"How should I say this. I know... what do you all know about the kyuubi?" she asked.

"Well thats easy. Everyone know that the kyuubi attacked Konoha 13 years ago and the Yondaime killed the beast. But he also got killed in the process of it. It was one of the reasons why he is the strong Hokage." said the bookworm; Sakura Haruno.

"That is what everyone was told. However there was a law stopping everyone from your generation from finding out about what really happened." Tsunade said earning their full attention.

"13 years ago the kyuubi did attack however the yondaime couldn't kill the beast because it was a being made up of pure chakra and can't die. So he used his knowledge of fuuinjutsu to defeat the beast. However it can't just be sealed into anyone. It had to be a newborn baby because its chakra network hasn't been built yet so he sealed it into the only baby he could; his son." she said shocking everyone. To think the yondaime had a son and it was the person that held back the kyuubi.

"If I may ask Tsunade-sama, who was this person?" asked Ino.

"The person who it was sealed into is Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze. Son of Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki." she said earning a shocked face from everyone, even Sasuke. However Tenten was the most taken back by this.

"Is it the same Kushina Uzumaki that was the best swordsman in Konoha, know as the Red Hot-Blooded Habanero? The one that was said to be as strong as if not stronger than Kiri's Seven Swordsman of the mist?" asked Tenten quickly.

"Yes it was. Kushina was Naruto's mom however she and Minato died the night kyuubi attacked which is why Naruto grew up as an orphan. It was also why the villagers treated Naruto badly and beat him up almost everyday. This brings us to the next point. After bringing back Sasuke Naruto was banished by the council because he accessed the kyuubi's chakra against his fight." she said and most of Naruto's friend became angry. Sasuke was the one running away from the village yet it's Naruto who gets punished.

"Surely you could have stopped them from banishment right, afterall you are the Hokage and you have final say in anything." said Shikamaru.

"I could have however there was a rule made by the Nidaime which allows the council to overrule my decision if majority of the council voted. And that is what happened. But I didn't give up, I read through the politics section of the library and found a loop around it and I went to find Naruto about this however he was gone. He wasn't there, only a letter and my grandfather's necklace left there." she said trying not to cry but slowly tears started to build up in her eyes. Thats not the end of it either." she said but Jiraiya decided it was best if he said what happened next to everyone.

"That day I came back to take Naruto on my training trip and found out what happened. So I immediately left Konoha to search for Naruto. And I did find him, only it wasn't the way I hoped to find him. I found Naruto in the middle of a field which seemed like the result of a battle and when I went to check on him who was laying on the floor... I found out that he was dead." He stated with sadness which was obvious from his voice.

The group was shocked.

THUD

Everyone looks towards the sound and find Hinata on the floor, unconscious. She had fainted. Even though she had fainted there was tears coming out of her closed eyes. No one could blame her though. After all if you find out that the one you love the most has died you wouldn't just sit around you would probably cry.

Almost everyone had tears in their eyes because Naruto their friend had died. Almost everyone. Sasuke was just stood there with an emotional expression. Sakura however was feeling a lot of guilt. Her last confrontation with Naruto wasn't exactly pleasant. She had slapped Naruto and basically told him to never see her again and she didn't want to see him ever again either.

Tsunade then announced;

"Sasuke and Sakura you're dismissed. The rest of you stay I have to tell you something important."

Sakura slowly walked out of the place whilst Sasuke just stood there.

"Didn't you hear me Sasuke? I said you and Sakura should leave."

"I did hear you but if its something important then I should hear it as well, after all I'm an Elite Uchiha. And these are just normal genins."

Jiraiya was so tempted to punch him through the wall.

"You will obey my orders and get out of here GENIN. Or I make you a civilian and remove your chakra network." and that was ll the threat needed to get Sasuke to get out of the office.

As Sasuke walked out, Iruka knocked on the door.

"Hokage-sama,... is.. Naruto really ...dead?" he asked not wanting to believe it.

"Im sorry Iruka but that is true. And you should stay, I was going to call you anyway."

"I have kept all of you behind because you will all be at Naruto's private location will be kept a secret for many reasons so I don't want any of you to tell anyone."

* * *

><p><strong>Eye of the world<strong>

Naruto opened his eyes and took a look at his surroundings. He could see a small window with a wooden frame and a small table by his bed and a chair. He slowly got up and went to the bathroom. There was a mirror there and for some reason he thought he should look at the mirror because it felt like his hair was burning and there was a bump on his head. As he looked at the mirror he could see a big difference to how he looked before. His hair had turned black. His whiskers mark also got darker and it was more visible but the scary thing was his eyes. It not had red slitted pupil, like the kyuubi's.

"What happened to me?" he asked to noone in particular.

"A lot." an answer came back.

This caused Naruto to jump a bit, then he started to remember what happened before he fainted. The Rikudo Sennin did some weird jutsu then a head started rising from the ground and it shot out a black ball into the sky. That ball exploded into nine parts and all of it went into him.

"I will explain what had happened. The black ball your thinking of right now is Kurama-kun's dark part, or his Yin chakra, which was separated from him when sealed into you. I simply recovered it and tried put it back into you only there was some problem and your body didn't accept the chakra. That is why you felt so much pain and your body passed out. Over the 2 weeks you have been asleep the yin chakra has slowly adapted and is now in your body, but its not in the same way as Kurama's chakra. It had evolved in your body and given you a new bloodline; Meiton (dark release). This is something that never showed in my future vision so whatever it is, its a gods gift to you."

Naruto was trying to process all of that. He had been out for almost 2 weeks and he has a new bloodline.

"Now that you are up though, get ready and enjoy you day because we begin training tomorrow." Hagoromo stated.

"Hai Hagoromo-sensei." Naruto said enthusiastically. He then began to think, if he had a bloodline then does it mean he came from a clan.

_'Maybe Hagoromo-jiji knows. If he can look into the future then he must have seen who my parents were so he can tell me.' _He thought to himself


	4. 3 years

**Disclaimer- I don't own Naruto and I probably won't, but can't tell for sure. All rights go to Masashi Kishimoto, (who in case you don't know, owns Naruto)**

* * *

><p><strong>Previously:<strong>

_"What happened to me?" he asked to no one in particular._

_"A lot." an answer came back._

_This caused Naruto to jump a bit, then he started to remember what happened before he fainted. The Rikudo Sennin did some weird jutsu then a head started rising from the ground and it shot out a black ball into the sky. That ball exploded into nine parts and all of it went into him._

_"I will explain what had happened. The black ball you're thinking of right now is Kurama-kun's dark part, or his Yin chakra, which was separated from him when sealed into you. I simply recovered it and tried put it back into you only there was some problem and your body didn't accept the chakra. That is why you felt so much pain and your body passed out. Over the 2 weeks you have been asleep the yin chakra has slowly adapted and is now in your body, but its not in the same way as Kurama's chakra. It had evolved in your body and given you a new bloodline; Meiton (dark release). This is something that never showed in my future vision so whatever it is, its a gods gift to you."_

_Naruto was trying to process all of that. He had been out for almost 2 weeks and he has a new bloodline._

_"Now that you are up though, get ready and enjoy you day because we begin training tomorrow." Hagoromo stated._

_"Hai Hagoromo-sensei." Naruto said enthusiastically_

* * *

><p><strong>Nine sides of a Mask<strong>

* * *

><p><strong><em>Chapter 4: 3 years<em>**

* * *

><p><strong>Time skip 3 years<strong>

**Hi no Kuni (Land of Fire)- Konoha**

The village hidden in the leaf was getting on with their normal day routine. The sun was up and feeding the village and the people with plenty of sunlight. The birds were keeping the village from falling silence with their singing; not that it would with all the people talking and greeting each other.

Walking through the market was a young, pink haired, lady. One of Tsunade's 3 apprentice; Sakura Haruno. Over the 3 years she had matured a lot. And the trigger of this was her guilty feeling towards a blond haired genin who is now _deceased. _After she had heard the news she was very sad because of what she had said to him. She was crying and stayed in her room for about a month then thats when she got help. Her friend Ino came to talk to her, although Ino was angry because of what Sakura had done, she couldn't let her get depressed and stay the way she was. They had talked and Sakura came up with a new goal, she will become stronger and also become the best medic, because that way she would never have to lose another person close to her again. Ino and Sakura went to Tsunade in hopes of becoming her apprentice, of course Tsunade rejected Sakura immediately but after a lot of apologizing and explaining her reason Tsunade had accepted her as an apprentice. But that didn't make any of the training easier, she had constantly worked every day so that she can achieve her goal and after 3 years she has become one of the if not the best medic nin in Konoha of her generation.

Currently Sakura was walking to the main gate, to collect the newspaper that the hokage asked for. As she got closer to the main gate she could see Kotetsu and Izumo sitting on their seats and looking bored as usual.

"Hi Sakura, its been a while since I saw you." said Kotetsu

"I was only here yesterday to collect the newspaper." she replied.

"Really? It feels like I've been here forever." complained Kotetsu.

"Why don't you get an actual mission and get out of this gate watching then? Well anyway I'm here for today's paper."

"Yeah I have them here." Izumo said, and picked up one of the paper that has been rolled up on top of a pile with lots of newspaper, and handed it to her. Before she could leave Izumo turned serious and passed a final message;

"When you have time read it, it seems that the masked ninja has wiped out another bandit camp, except this time they had at least 3 A class missing nin and over 50 bandits." and he said this with a serious tone.

Sakura nodded and walked away. As she was walking towards Tsunade's office she started to think about this masked shinobi. This mysterious shinobi first made his existence clear about 6 months ago when he captured a small group of missing nin, who had been made criminal for selling out their village secrets to enemy village. No one knows what he looks like or even where he came from, only a few slaves that had been freed from bandits know. They don't even know how he fights only the bandits started screaming and it was all over in five minutes.

As she got closer to the Hokage's office she saw Kiba, Hinata and Shino standing outside all looking a bit out of character which created a serious atmosphere.

"Hey guys." Sakura said friendly as she waved at them.

"Is something wrong?"

"We don't know. We were called here to come immediately by the Hokage and Kurenai-sensei is in the room talking with Tsunade-sama along with Kakashi-sensei." Hinata said.

Over the three years, it wasn't only Sakura who had grown a lot. All the rookie 9 has. However out of them all, the most noticeable was Hinata, because no longer was she the shy little girl she once was. She has lost her shy habit after Naruto's death although it took her months to come out of the shock, but with team 8's help and especially Kurenai-sensei's help she did. And it was on that day she also had a new goal, it was to become a strong kunoichi so that she can become the next Hokage, and she will do it; after all she never goes back on her word because thats her ninja way!

At that moment the door opened and Shizune walked out not looking happy, but rather really tense.

"Tsunade-sama asked all of you to come in." she spoke quickly.

Without being told twice Sakura and team 8 walked in wondering what has happened. In the room they saw their Hokage; Tsunade Senju as well as their senseis; Kurenai Yuhi and Kakashi Hatake.

"Team 8 and Sakura 7!" Tsunade spoke in a commanding voice, showing why she was the Hokage.

"Your senseis already know the full details so I will make it brief. Yesterday the Kazekage was defeated and kidnapped by the Akatsuki at their home village. Both team 7 and 8 will go out immediately to rescue the Kazekage. This mission will be led by Kakashi with Kurenei in second command. If you have any questions then ask either Kakashi or Kurenei as they already know the full details. You will leave as soon as your teams are ready. I will send back up soon as a team is back from mission as all teams are on a mission and you are dealing with Akatsuki so we can not risk taking chances." she finished.

"Hai Hokage/ Tsunade-sama!" they all said.

"Ok. Tsunade-sama has already told you what has happened. We will all prepare for the mission and meet at the south entrance in 30 mins. And dont be late!" Kakashi said. Normally they would have laughed because those words were not something that goes with Kakashi, but it just showed how much more important this mission was. After all the Kazekage has been kidnapped by the akatsuki and Suna had requested their help. And mainly because Gaara was one of Naruto's close friend and a jinchuuriki too.

With the final instruction given everyone nodded their heads and left except Sakura who left the newspaper and said one last thing to Tsunade,

"Don't worry Tsunade-sama we will rescue Gaara.".

Tsunade simply nodded her head in acknowledgement, then opened up the newspaper for any interesting news.

However she was thinking about what team to send. Gai's team was supposed to come soon so she could send team Gai along with Sasuke, who was in a mission with them, but that might be a risk. After All sending Sasuke to deal with Akatsuki might make him unstable again, and she don't have much control over him either due to him being part of Danzo's anbu.

* * *

><p><strong>On the border between Tsuchi no kuni (Land of Earth) and Ishigakure no sato (Village hidden in the stones).<strong>

**A bandit camp (night time)**

"I can't wait for the auction next week. These slaves should get us enough money to last us for at least 9 months." said a bandit excitedly pointing behind them where about 30 people were all locked in cages. In the group there was many women, children and elderly people. The weren't looking good though, like they haven't eaten in weeks.

"Yeah I know. When I get my share I think I'm will go to the Land of Hot Water. I heard they have lots of hot springs and they have recently built some casinos, that should be fun. What are you going to do with your share Kusuo?" replied another bandit to his friend who is now identified as Kusuo.

"I don't know? I hadn't thought of what to do with my share, I think I might come with you to Land of Hot Water, it doesn't sound bad,... Wait a second. I'm getting tired of all these kids crying. Let me go shut them up." Kusuo said as he got up and started to walk towards to cage where all people were locked up.

The children in the cage started to get scared as they saw a bandit walking towards them. The small girl who was crying started to cry even more now because of how scared she was.

"I want to go home to mommy." she said whilst crying.

Another boy who looked about the same age as the girl sat next to the girl and tried to calm her down.

"Don't worry Maki, we will go home then you can see your mommy." he said trying to convince her even though he knew they won't get out of here. Like most children here he had been separated from his parents, and he too was kidnapped but unlike most children he knew what was going to happen as he was the son of Shinobi and his dad had already told him a lot about bandits and what they do to people that get kidnapped by them.

"Shut your mouth you stupid kids." Kusuo said as he got closer to their cage;

"You won't see your parents again," he then grinned

"because we have already killed them." and Maki started to cry even louder than before but this time it wasn't only Maki as lots of the other children also started to cry after hearing their parent were killed.

"They were giving too much trouble, like you are right now. So if you don't shut up I will send you to your parents right now." he said as he pulled out his large battle axe which was still stained with blood.

Most the childrens had now stopped their crying out of fear but Maki was still crying and couldn't stop.

"Guess I will have to show you what I mean." he said as and went closer to the cage's door.

"Oi Kusuo, isn't that going a bit far? I mean you can kill her if you want but the money is coming out of your share." said Kusuo's friend.

Kusuo suddenly stopped moving and just stood there. All the people was staring at Kusuo, Maki had also stopped crying and just stared at Kusuo. Everyone in the cage was silent and Kusuo's friend was confused. But that wasn't for long because Kusuo's body slowly moved with the wind and fell backwards, which is when a kunai was seen stuck in his throat closing his mouth and by the looks of it; gone straight to his brain.

Kusuo's friend came out of his shock and was about to alert all the other bandits, because him and Kusuo was on the lookout . However he came out of his shock a bit too late because a black mist started rolling in to the forest.

All the people in the cage was shocked and confused because suddenly Kusuo got killed and then his friend was about to warn the other bandits but suddenly a black mist started to cover the whole area and they haven't heard anything after that. Not even Kusuo's friend.

After about two minutes they heard some metal things rattling and a clank. Then they heard a metal door creaking and there was no mistaking it, it was the door to their cage.

The mist soon started to disperse and what they saw made them happy and shocked. On the floor was all the bandits dead body with a pool of blood by their heads. But what made them happy was the cage door open. They also saw a scroll outside the cage which was never there. Everyone got out of the cage and started to cheer, then a red haired women in about her early 20's gingerly walked to the scroll and picked it up and looked at it, it didn't seem like it was dangerous, just another ordinary sealing scroll so she opened it and there was a large cloud of smoke, when the smoke died down there was something that made everyone happy and restored hope in everyone.

There was food; lots of food, more than enough for everyone. There was also a map of their surrounding with a 'x' marked on it which was presumably where they were.

No one knew who their hero was but they had an idea of who he was. Everyone was too busy eating their food anyway.

From a very long distance there a figure looking at the whole group. After seeing what he wanted he turned around and left the vicinity.

**_"You know we are just wasting time here. We have to hurry to the Land of River quickly otherwise that crazy raccoon will be sucked out of Gaara, and according to what the old man said we have 3 days before it happens."_**

_'Thats more than enough time'_

* * *

><p><strong>one day later (two days till Ichibi is sealed)<strong>

**Sunagakure - Hospital**

After arriving a half a day ago, everyone had been told what happened. They had been told about how Gaara had been attacked in the middle of Suna, and that the members who attacked them were Sasori and Deidara; an ex Iwa shinobi. When they had heard Kankuro had followed the two akatsuki members to the middle of the desert and fought with them, only to get beaten badly and poisoned, Hinata and Sakura immediately took action and tried to cure him. Of course there was a lot of poison in his body at first but with Hinata's byakugan and Sakura's emergency poison removing skills the had removed most of the poison. They then had to make a cure, which wasn't too hard because with Hinata's byakugan she could see the structure of the poison and then she along with Sakura made an antidote to cure Kankuro. After 12 hours of treatment he had finally been saved.

"He should be fine now, We have removed all the poison. He just needs to rest and he will be fine." Sakura said.

"Thank you so much. I don't know what would have happened without you. Thank you Sakura and Hinata for saving my little brother." Temari said really happily with joy tears because her brother had just been cured from Sasori's poison.

"Since Kankuro is better we can leave to retrieve Gaara from Akatsuki. I had already sent Pakkun and Kiba to find the trail using the cloth Kankuro gave." Kakashi intervened.

"He's right the more time we take the more chance they have of getting away with it." Kurenei added.

Then everyone in the room got a bit tense and the atmosphere of the room turned everyone serious.

At that moment Kiba, Akamaru and Pakkun walked in.

"We found the trail, we should leave as soon as possible because the trail could easily be lost." Kiba said with a nod of approval from Pakkun.

"Ok then. Everyone get your things and prepare we will leave in 15 minutes." Kakashi said with a voice a little louder than normal, and heard a chorus of 'Hai'.

"Kakashi-san, I will also be coming with your team. I have to rescue my brother." Temari said to Kakshi.

But before Kakashi could reply Lady Chiyo intervened.

"No Temari. I will go with them. I have some things I must say to my grandson." She said.

Temari was about to say something but Ebizo put his hands on her shoulders.

"If everyone, who wants to go to save the Kazekage, goes on this mission then who will defend Suna? Word will get out that we currently have no kage and any neighbouring village may attack us to become one of the five great villages. We should stay here and defend our home. It is what the Kazekage would want us to do right now. Lets leave Gaara-kun to Konoha's team and Chiyo." He said trying to persuade and open Temari's eyes.

"Ok. We will defend our home. And Chiyo-baasama please save Gaara." She said with a pleading look in her eyes. She then turned to team 7 and 8.

"Good luck to you all and be safe." and she left the room.

"Ok team 7 and team 8 prepare to leave soon." Kakashi said before leaving to get his supply from the room where they were staying.

**15 minutes later - Suna's East entrance**

At the east entrance stood the team from Konoha; Sakura, Hinata, Shino, Kiba, Akamaru and Kurenei with their team Captain Kakashi who was stood next to his ninken; Pakkun. They were all getting ready to leave to get back Gaara.

Behind the team Lady Chiyo walked towards them followed by her brother; Ebizo. And behind all of them was Suna's shinobi with Temari in the middle holding her signature fan. All of suna was cheering for them to rescue their beloved Kazekage.

"Ok team lets move out. Pakkun, Kiba and Akamaru will at the front, Hinata and Kurenei at the back. Sakura and Lady Chiyo will be in the middle with me and Shino on the sides. Now lets go." Kakashi said and they all moved in formation towards their destination.

* * *

><p><strong>1 day later (1 day till Ichibi is sealed)<strong>

**Border between Kaze no Kuni (land of wind) and Kawa no kuni (land of river)**

Running through the forest on the border between two country was Team 7 and 8 along with Lady Chiyo. If you look closely at them you can see that they are really exhausted.

That's because they have been running for eighteen hours out of the last twenty-four hours. They only had six hours of rest.

"Ok team." Kakashi said stopping everyone.

"Lets rest for a bit. We have all been moving for a long time, so lets rest and recover some strength so that we can fight the Akatsuki at full strength. We will stay here for about an hour so do what you want." Kakashi finished then pulled out his little orange book.

"Finally. I feel a bit exhausted after all that running. But that was nothing for us, right Akamaru?" Kiba said and Akamaru barked back but Kiba knew what he was saying.

"But Kiba it was Akamaru that did most the job as you were riding on him." Hinata added.

"Oh. Come on Hinata." whined Kiba. While Akamaru barked again and went to Hinata. The rest of the group was laughing at this, except Chiyo who was deep in thought about Sasori, and Shino who seemed like he was talking to... a bug.

While all this was going on a certain black and white member of the Akatsuki went into the tree he was in.

**Kawa no kuni - Akatsuki hideout**

In the cave in Land of Rivers, there stood a large pair of wooden hands and a huge wooden head. This head had 9 eyes and all of them were closed.

In each of the fingers there was figure standing and in the middle between the two hands was Gaara floating in a chakra bubble. The chakra looked like it was being eaten by the head because all of the chakra was going straight into its mouth.

Then suddenly a clone of Zetsu, that was observing the rescue Team, came out of the ground, drawing the attention of most members of Akatsuki.

"The team from Konoha is coming here, they are being accompanied by Chiyo from Suna. They are coming here earlier than anticipated."

'Why is she coming here?' thought Sasori.

"Well I was getting bored of just standing and sealing the Ichibi here anyway, we should pay them a visit. I would really like to show them my art." Said Deidara.

Before anyone else could say anything the leader of the organization decided to add his part;

"No. Kisame and Itachi should go deal with them. Kisame you deal with the team coming from the east side and Itachi, you deal with Kakashi's team on the west side." said the figure with rippled eyes: Pein.

"Samehada was getting hungry anyway, and I was looking forward for a rematch with the Green Beast." Kisame said, whilst Itachi simply nodded his head at the order given however he was thinking about what to do if Sasuke was there.

**with Team 7 and 8**

Currently they were all getting ready to leave. They had packed up their things and was about to leave but.

"Whoever you are, come out of there. I know you're there." Shino said with no expression, and just got into his battle stance and everyone else followed him.

Without being told again, from behind the tree a shady figure walked out. Almost everyone was too shocked to do anything. Their brains was not functioning properly, and Chiyo was just as confused. Why was there another Konoha ninja out here? Wasn't all the backup already here and if there is more then why is there only one person there, no one boy?!

Meanwhile Hinata was on the verge of crying. She slowly identified what was in everyone's mind, because there in front of them stood a blond boy who everyone had thought to be dead over 3 years ago.

"...Naruto?"

* * *

><p><strong>Cliff hanger no jutsu...<strong>

**What do you think?**


	5. Unknown Help

**Disclaimer- I don't own Naruto and I probably won't, but can't tell for sure. All rights go to Masashi Kishimoto, (who in case you don't know, owns Naruto)**

* * *

><p><strong>Nine sides of a Mask<strong>

* * *

><p><strong><em>Chapter 5 - Unknown help<em>**

* * *

><p><strong>East of Kawa no Kuni (land of Rivers)<strong>

Racing towards the Akatsuki hideout to aid Team 7 and 8, as well as saving the Kazekage was members of Team Gai; the Green Beast of Konoha, Might Gai, the Prodigal Hyuuga, Hyuuga Neji, Konoha's weapon mistress, Tenten and lastly the Second Green Beast of Konoha, Rock Lee. And following shortly behind them was the 'Last Uchiha', Uchiha Sasuke.

When they went to Konoha after a tiring mission, which was to patrol the borders of Land of Fire, for 2 weeks, they were hoping to get some rest not to get sent on another mission straight away. Of course they saw they reason behind it, the Kazekage was an important person.

After travelling for a day they reached the desert that they are currently crossing. the desert was blazing hot and it went on, for as far as the eye can see. After being in the desert for a couple of hours they guessed they were at halfway point, they saw a figure at the horizon.

When they got close enough they all stopped and Neji activated his byakugan to take a look at the person in front of them.

After a quick analysis he decided to tell his comrades.

"It's no stranger. With the large chakra, the cloak with red clouds and the sword which also have large amount of chakra, he must be Kisame Hoshigaki. Although he doesn't seem to be at full strength as he only has half his chakra reserve." said Neji confidently.

At this point Sasuke smirked. After 3 years, he finally gets a chance to get Itachi, because Kisame was Itachi's partner so he must know where he is.

"Kisame!" Sasuke shouted.

Kisame simply tilted his head in Sasuke's direction.

"If you want to live, tell me where Itachi is!" he demanded, and activated his sharingan, to tell him he wasn't joking.

Kisame didn't say anything, just adjusted Samehada to his comfort.

Sasuke was getting angry at this so he decided to beat the information out of him.

He got his feet in a position to sprint at him and charged his right hand with lightning chakra. During all of this Gai was still trying to figure out who this person was.

Once Sasuke was ready he launched at Kisame with intent to kill. He didn't get far though, because as soon as he launched himself he found himself in the ground with his right hand stuck in the ground. On top of him was Gai holding him down.

"Sasuke! Haven't you learned anything over the past 3 years! You don't just blindly rush at your opponent. Whoever he is, he isn't to be taken lightly. Look at his stance, he had his weapon ready to slash anyone that attacked him." Gai explained to Sasuke.

Meanwhile Sasuke was raging. He was about to kill the shark bastard or fatally injure him and get info on Itachi, but got stopped by Gai like it was nothing. Of course he had been caught of guard by this since he was only focused on Kisame and didn't expect a _comrade_ to attack him.

Gai decided to step in and take care of 'Kisame'. He got off of Sasuke and took a inspected his opponent. He then came to a conclusion.

"I don't know who you are, but you look very identical to the Kisame I fought before. I also don't know what your purpose is, but if defeating you is the only way to get past then that is what I will do." he declared.

Almost everyone was shocked by this. Like everyone Tenten was sure it had to be Kisame Hoshigaki, one of the _Kiri no Shinobigatana Shichinin Shū_ ( seven swordsman of the Mist). After all he wielded the legendary Samehada, able to eat chakra and only obeys its wielder, so if its not Kisame how is it listening to him?

Neji was a bit suspicious from the start so he didn't find it unbelievable. This Kisame did have a small reserve of chakra compared to what to the real Kisame would have. the 'Tailless Biju' would have at least 4 times the amount 'Kisame' would have if his guess was correct.

Lee was shocked at first but not because of what they found but because of who found out.

"Thats Gai sensei. He has eyes that can pierce further than the byakugan and see better than the sharingan." he declared with his high spirit.

Everyone just fell down anime style with a sweatdrop. Of course Gai didn't he just did his 'good guy' pose where he had a big smile, a _very_ big smile and had his thumbs up towards Lee.

Before anything else could be said Gai turned around and got into his taijutsu stance.

Kisame just smirked and got into his stance with samehada in one hand.

* * *

><p><strong>Team 7 and 8 - Kawa no Kuni (Land of Rivers)<strong>

In the open field surrounded by the bright green forest, stood Gaara's rescue team. Everyone there was just stood still. All of their attention was on one person. In front of them stood a 16 year old boy with sun kissed blonde hair, he stood at about 5.5 feet high. the most noticeable feature about him was the whiskers mark on his cheek.

"Hey guys. Ummm… what do I say, guess Im not..." he started, but was cut off by Hinata who was crying.

"STOP!... I don't know who you are, or why you're doing this but this is a sick joke." she said with anger in her voice. Most of the group knew what was going on now, even if they didn't notice it before. She looked at Naruto once again then turned towards Kurenei. Chiyo was still a bit confused, there was only one thing running through her mind right now; 'Who is that boy?'

"Sensei." she said and Kurenei just nodded because she knew what Hinata meant.

Kurenei held up her hand and made a seal. She then started to gather chakra in her hands. Once she got enough she released it all at once;

**"Genjutsu: Heki no Kai (Genjutsu: Burst release)"** and with that the built up chakra was released and spread out from her in a ring, when it touched Naruto he simply disappeared.

"It was a genjutsu? That means the caster is nearby." Chiyo announced.

Everyone was in a stance prepared for battle now. As they quietly looked for where the enemy was a bug flew to Shino and seemed like it was talking to him, he then told the group;

"The enemy is hiding behind that tree." He said pointing at a tree that was near them.

"Since we all know where you are why don't you show yourself... Itachi!" Kakashi said, with slight anger in his voice.

then a figure walked from behind the tree and stood in front of everyone in the open field.

"Hmm, It seems Sasuke is not here. Is he still being watched by Konoha after the incident 3 years ago, and has he go enough hatred to kill me?" he asked calmly.

Everyone was stood still trying to come up with the best plan to attack, Sakura couldn't take it anymore and just charged at him. When she got close enough she pulled back her fist and released it quickly, resulting in a powerful punch that shook the ground a bit. She then jumped back again because it seem too easy to defeat Itachi, an S rank missing nin of Konoha, and she was correct because Itachi disappeared with his signature genjutsu and crows started to fly around.

Itachi then reappeared nearby and just dusted himself.

"It seems medic isn't the only skill you learned from Tsunade over the past 3 years, you have also gained the super strength." He calmly stated.

"Why are you here Itachi?" questioned Kakashi as he pulled up his headband, revealing a crimson eye with three tomoes swirling in a circle; the sharingan.

Itachi just stood calmly and observed everyone. He noticed that everyone was planning something; the Aburame was stood still but he had worked with more than enough Aburames during Anbu to know that the Aburame was discreetly gathering all the bugs in the vicinity. the Inuzuka didn't look like he had anything planned but just had one of his hands held tight, which he had to guess had the pill which will be given to the dog at any moment. then the Hyuuga; she seemed to be concentrating all of her attention on him, he would have thought that she would be charging at him for showing him her dead loved one. Sakura looked at him with eyes that showed anger, she had her hand ready to punch anything and at the same time she was ready to heal any injured members. the two jounins, Kurenei and Kakashi seemed to be ready to counter anything, Kakashi was observing him with his sharingan whilst Kurenei was ready to activate a genjutsu by the look of her hands and position. And lastly the Suna's puppeteer; Lady Chiyo, who was also Sasori's grandmother. Although it seemed like she was just standing there, Itachi could see the chakra string attached to her scroll which she can pull out at any given moment and unleash a puppet.

"It seems that all of you want to fight me." he stated with a monotone voice.

Kakashi was about to ask him the previous question again however Hinata interrupted to give a vital piece of information.

"Thats not Itachi. At first I was unsure because his chakra is too small to belong to an S class like him. However I looked further into him and saw that his whole body is an illusion because there is another body in there and Itachi is just a layer of chakra thats controlling the body. If i had to guess I would say the real Itachi is really far from here. Isn't that right Itachi?" She announced.

Although he didn't show it, Itachi was both impressed and shocked at the same time. Hinata Hyuuga had just revealed one of Akatsuki's secret jutsu just by looking at him with her byakugan.

"I was thinking the same too." said Kakashi, backing up Hinata.

"I have fought Itachi before and worked with him before that. I was thinking he was acting strange." Kakashi explained.

"Since we know he is just here to stall for time, I think we should just kick his ass and move on to save Gaara." Kiba said with a lot of enthusiasm, and Akamaru just barked to that saying he agrees then went back to growling at Itachi.

"I agree with Kiba. If Itachi is here to stall for time then their hideout must be close and they don't have enough time to finish what they are doing, which is why they have sent Itachi here." Shino said with no emotion in his voice.

then Itachi suddenly started to run through severely hand seals.

"It may not be the real Itachi, but don't underestimate him." Kakashi shouted.

Before the team could react Itachi took a deep breath and blew a giant fireball... behind him. the fireball went through the forest burning down anything in its way trees and bugs. Lots of bugs.

When he turned around again he saw that everyone was moving, trying to get the right moment to attack him. He then had to dodge an attack incoming from both sides but couldn't move. He looked down and saw that his feet was sinking into the ground.

**"Gatsuuga! (Fang over fang (AN: correct me if I'm wrong))" **shouted Kiba as he and Akamaru moved towards Itachi at an amazing speed, through the air and spinning so fast all anyone could see was a cylinder shaped thing moving. then it hit Itachi head on but somehow Itachi moved his body so that he got out of that with minimal amount of damage.

But as soon as Kiba had finished his attack he saw Sakura charging at him, and he knew there was no way to get out of this attack unharmed unless he dodged.

When Sakura had gotten close to Itachi she did the same as last time and released a chakra powered punch at Itachi, hitting him directly in the face. His face should have been broken but instead she went right through him and punched the ground... in front of the real Itachi because she had attacked an illusion.

Using the opportunity Itachi jumped out of the ground and stood in front of Sakura, running through several hand seals, getting ready to incinerate Sakura but he heard something that defined doom for him.

"Your within my range of devination" the voice came from behind him.

**"Hakke Rokujuyon Sho (Eight trigrams Sixety-Four palms)" **Hiata said as she ran towards Itachi. then she started her assault.

**"Two palms"**

**"Four palms"**

**"Eight palms"**

**"Sixteen palms"**

**"Thirty-two palms"**

**"Sixty-four palms"** But she didn't finish it there.

"This is for using Naruto"

**"Eight trigrams one hundred and twenty-eight palms"**

**"One Hundred and twenty-eight palms" **And with that she sealed all of Itachi's chakra points.

Itachi fell down after that attack and his image started to disappear. What was left was an Suna's civilian, judging by the clothes he was wearing.

Everyone gathered around the body that was left behind. Chiyo had a closer look at him before saying;

"I know him. He was part of our council. His name is Yura. We cant just leave his body here, we must take it back for his friend and family."

Kakashi nodded and took out a sealing scroll and a body bag, then started to seal him into it.

"Wow Hinata. That was amazing. I mean you've never showed that last attack during training and you defeated Itachi single by yourself with that." Kiba complemented.

"I didn't do that much. If it wasn't for everyone weakening him then that attack wouldn't have worked. And Kiba, I didn't show the Eight trigrams 128 palms during training because I was working on it secretly and also because it is a really dangerous taijutsu to try out on friends." She said. But Sakura had different thoughts about who defeated Itachi.

"No. Kiba is right. I didn't even do much, after three years of training I finally thought I was strong, but look at me. I fell for the most simplest bunshin and allowed Itachi to escape from the mud that Kakashi trapped him in." Sakura said.

"Yeah your right" Hinata said shocking most the people around her.

"But if it wasn't for you, the Itachi wouldn't have been in the position to be taken down. Overall it was a team victory." Hinata stated confidently, while Kiba and Akamaru cheered for that. Sakura started to feel a bit better about that, but she was making plans about learning genjutsu, so after this mission she would ask Kurenei sensei if she could learn genjutsu from her.

Meanwhile Shino was in the forest that was burned down to see if there was any of his comrades that survived.

Kurenei just smiled at how Hinata was trying to make Sakura feel better and how much Hinata has grown out of the shy little girl that she once was.

Once Kakashi had finished sealing Yura he gathered everyone to discuss about the next step.

"Ok team. We will move out immediately because, like Shino explained earlier, we are definitely close to their hideout and they haven't finished extracting the Ichibi, which is why they sent Itachi to stall for time. So if anyone is injured then either Hinata or Sakura will heal you, once everyone is fixed we are leaving."

* * *

><p><strong>Akatsuki hideout<strong>

After Itachi's battle had finished his mind went back to his real body, he then joined the rest at the hideout to seal the Ichibi.

"So did you eliminate the rescue team coming here?" questioned Pein.

"No. I underestimated them. Hinata Hyuuga has grown more powerful then I thought and her mastery of the byakugan is the best of her generation." Itachi said calmly, but all the Akatsuki members knew that if Itachi was praising someone then their skills must be really good.

"This is why I should have gone. I could have eliminated them with just one of my art." said Deidara.

However Pein was not amused by this. the sealing will be interrupted soon and they don't even have the Ichibi sealed. Whilst he was deep in thought the other member had joined them from his battle.

"Kisame how did your battle go?" Questioned Pein.

"My battle didn't go too well. I managed to weaken Might Gai though, he had to use five inner gates to defeat me, even then I wasn't losing much but Sasuke hit me with a chidori when I had my guard down battling Gai." He said with a bit of anger because of how the battle turned out. It was supposed to be a battle against him and Gai but that brat had intervened when he had his attention focused on Gai.

At this Pein got pissed.

"Not a single team was eliminated. At this rate they will interrupt the sealing and the Ichibi will be incomplete."

He quickly started to devise a plan to counter the situation.

"OK, Sasori and Deidara!" He said in a authoritative tone, earning their attention quickly.

"You two will take care of the teams coming here. Zetsu said the Konoha's rescue team was coming here by following the Inuzuka's nose so you two will take a piece of cloth from the Ichibi's jinchuuriki and head to the valley towards the north of here, where you will fight and eliminate the rescue teams. I don't want to hear that you have failed this mission."

Without being told twice the two artist prepared to leave.

Deidara used his jutsu to expand one of his small clay bird, and got on it. Sasori used his tail to shred a big piece of cloth from Gaara's cloak, then calmly walked towards the exit.

* * *

><p><strong>With team 7 and 8<strong>

Jumping from tree to tree, whilst hurrying through the forest was the Rescue teams.

After the battle with Itachi everyone had decided to hurry because they had lost a lot of time with Itachi. As they were running most of them sensed something coming from the east direction, so they were still going but slowed down a bit and was prepared for anything.

then suddenly they heard it louder and closer so they all stopped and decided to go to the ground where they can fight with more flexibility.

Kakashi was about to ask Hinata to scan the area and look at who was coming towards them, but what he heard made him not ask her because he heard lots of 'Youth'.

Then through the opening to the forest they were in Team Gai and Sasuke came in.

"Kakashi my eternal rival! I see you have beaten me to our goal, this is why you are my rival!" shouted Gai.

"Gai lets have our competition some other time right now we are dealing with the Akatsuki. Well since we have all gathered here I think we should form a strategy and go to their hideout as soon as possible." said Kakashi in a serious tone.

Gai also got more serious and they started discussing the best possible way to deal with them. They also found out that Gai's team had to fight Kisame on their way here and how Sasuke had defeated him with a chidori, and at that Sasuke smirked and it also boosted his arrogance. Kakashi told them that they had to fight Itachi, and at that Sasuke got angry because he wasn't there to kill his brother then he found out, that like Kisame, Itachi was also a body being controlled. Sasuke got even more frustrated when he found out Hinata had defeated Itachi with her new taijutsu, whilst everyone else was impressed especially Neji although he didn't show it.

Eventually they came to a plan. Team 7 will get Gaara out of the hideout and take him to a safe place, they will be accompanied by Lady Chiyo, when they are at a safe place Sakura and Chiyo will start to heal him whilst Sasuke and Kakashi will guard them. Team 8 and Team Gai will deal with Sasori and Deidara, if there was anyone else then Sasuke will back them up.

So after their plan was devised they all left to get Gaara.

* * *

><p><strong>Akatsuki hideout<strong>

In the cave there was now seven transparent figures sealing the Ichibi. Then the eighth member rose out of the floor in the middle.

"Pein-sama!" Zetsu said desperately.

All the members now turned their attention to Zetsu.

"The Konoha's teams are still coming here. For some reason instead of following Sasori and Deidara they haven't changed their destination. The scent doesn't lead to here either, I've already erased most of it that leads to here."

Pein was not having a good day. First the teams arrive ahead of schedule, next Kisame and Itachi w got defeated easily. Now his plan wasn't going well and the Konoha's team was still headed towards here.

"Well that leaves us with no other choice. We are going to have to evacuate, we already have most of the Ichibi's chakra and also I would rather not show them how we extract the Bijuu or let them see any of our members for now. Zetsu tell Sasori and Deidara to come back, and tell them to retrieve the Ichibi's jinchuuriki if possible, if they were to lose then they are to stop the battle and get out of it alive. The rest of you. You already know which bijuu you are after so you know what to do." Pein finished and cut of connection with every members so one by one everyone started to disappear. Then there was just him, Gaara and the Gedo Statue. He also made the Gedo Statue sink into the ground with his Rippled eyes and he left.

* * *

><p><strong>The rescue teams<strong>

All the members had arrived on top of a cliff that stood opposite to the entrance of the hideout, only separated by a river running through the middle. They would have been happy but the atmosphere didn't make them feel that way, the black mist that shrouded this place made it seem gloomy.

"We finally arrived, now lets go to save Gaara. Then we can go home." Kakashi said trying to lift everyone's spirit a little.

"Man, I don't like this place. I don't like this mist at all, it doesn't feel comfortable." Kiba complained, and Akamaru barked in response to say he agrees.

"My insects are also acting strangely to this atmosphere, they can sense that it has been made with chakra, but no ordinary chakra. They say it feels evil and perhaps more evil then the Kyuubi's chakra." Shino added.

"My byakugan isn't working well either, I can't see past my own arms reach." Neji said with a bit of annoyance in his voice.

"I can see just fine with my _sharingan_." Sasuke said, insulting the others, whilst in a way insulting the clans themselves and showing why the Sharingan is superior dojutsu.

Neji was angry but decided to ignore Sasuke just like Hinata did.

They soon arrived in front of the entrance and saw that there was a seal in front of it. Kakashi examined it and came to a conclusion.

"It's no ordinary seal, there is more seals in nearby and all of them has to be peeled of at the same time, however we don't know where all the seals are and without the byakugan we cant do anything about this. However we don't have time for this so I'll have to use one of my secret weapon." He said and put his hands in his pocket and pulled out a scroll.

Most the people was exited to see what the secret weapon was and they all had a different idea in their mind.

Kakashi unsealed his scroll and a plume of smoke enveloped the scroll when it died down there was... about ten volumes of Icha-Icha, and they were all in mint condition.

"HOW IS THIS A SECRET WEAPON YOU PERVERT?!" screamed Sakura. Whilst everyone had the same thought, and Kurenei was fuming, after all there is nothing she hates more than perverts, and she was thinking of a way to destroy this rubbish. But some had other thoughts.

_'Man Kakashi sensei even has the extended edition of volume 5-8, I have to read them somehow' _Thought Kiba whilst imagining what it was like. But he was brought back into the current world with a hard punch to the head by Hinata who knew exactly what he was thinking.

"I agree with Sakura. How does this help sensei." Hinata questioned.

Meanwhile Kakashi was bushing so much he seemed to glow red.

"Wait. I have a seal that can drain chakra, it in this scroll because this is where all of my precious items are stored. The reason why its in here is because there are only two of these seals, it mas made by my sensei, the Yondaime, and only me and Jiraiya-sama has one. This is actually a seal that is too poerful, it can even drain the chakra of a jinchuuriki's chakra cloak." he said hoping they would change the subject.

Many was impressed at this. And this showed how skilled their Yondaime was in the art of sealing.

Kakashi took out the seal then sealed the rest of the items back into the scroll then sealed the scroll into another scroll, then put it into is pocket hidden in the jounin vest. He took the seal and placed it on top of the seal on the boulder and it started to glow blue. When it stopped glowing both of the seals came of and fell with the wind. Kakashi picked up his seal and put it into a pocket.

"Ok now all we have to do is break the boulder." he said, and looked at Sakura, to which she simply nodded.

Sakura then punched the boulder with one of her super powered punch and shattered the boulder like it was nothing.

Everyone got prepared for a battle, however when they saw inside there was nothing. It was completely empty. In the middle was Gaara who seemed to be suffering from something.

Since it was empty Sakura and Hinata ran to Gaara cautiously for any surprise attack, and since there wasn't any they immediately started their treatment.

"This seems to suspicious" Said Kakashi.

"It doesn't matter though everyone stay on their guard." He ordered.

Everyone nodded and guarded the medics and Gaara whilst looking out for any signs of the enemy.

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile - With Sasori and Deidara near the Valley<strong>

At the opening to the valley just past the forest stood the two member who had been sent to deal with the Konoha teams who will arrive.

"I wonder what's taking them so long. When they arrive I will have to teach them why I hate to wait."

"Well then. I guess I can keep you two entertained in the meantime." Spoke a voice coming from the forest.

Deidara and Sasori then looked at the small figure that got bigger and bigger as it got closer, then he stood in front of them both.

The Masked Shinobi.

* * *

><p><strong>And I will leave it there.<strong>

**Still working on the other chapters. Have it all done till chapter 7. After that there will most likely be a delay till the next because I have yet to draw out a concrete plot for the upcoming events.**

**Still looking for a beta reader. I know I make a lot of mistakes but if I'm the one who is trying to fix it I will not see my own. I mean sure Microsoft Word helps but still...**

**Anyway, hope you enjoyed that twist. I know one reviewer guessed it was a genjutsu. (Have a cookie** **chivotenkai :D )**

**CrypticsSilhouette - you probably have read this story before. I had it up on a separate account of mine before and took it down because I couldn't continue this story, and now ts back up on my new account. **


	6. A piece to the puzzle

**Disclaimer- I don't own Naruto and I probably won't, but can't tell for sure. All rights go to Masashi Kishimoto, (who in case you don't know, owns Naruto)**

* * *

><p><strong>Nine sides of a Mask<strong>

* * *

><p><strong><em>Chapter 6 - a piece to the Puzzle<em>**

* * *

><p><strong>Valley south to Akatsuki's hideout<strong>

"Listen kid, you obviously don't know us because if you did then you would have been running back in the direction you came from. So just scram whilst you can." Deidara said, clearly not amused by the new appearance.

However the masked shinobi didn't seem to be listening or even if he did, he didn't respond to it. This annoyed Deidara, so he picked up some clay from his pocket and made a spider using it. The spider then grew to the size of his palm and started to crawl towards the masked ninja. Deidara wasn't trying to kill him but just to make him go away because he didn't want to deal with the masked shinobi right now so this was just a warning.

The spider got closer and closer to the masked shinobi but he didn't move from his spot, when the spider jumped towards him, he still didn't do anything. Then the place was covered with dust flying everywhere due to the explosion from the small clay spider.

"It's always good to see wonderful art like that, and I did warned him." said Deidara with a smirk as he turned to Sasori.

Sasori responded by pushing Deidara away with his tail before jumping out of the way, of a powerful and sharp stream of wind. They were lucky to have dodged that because as the wind hit the trees behind the duo, the trees literally got shredded into pieces faster than they could blink.

After the lucky escape the two missing nins looked in the direction of where the attack came from.

There stood the masked ninja. Completely unharmed by Deidara's 'art'. Now that they looked at him with more interest the saw that he was slightly intimidating, maybe if they weren't 'S' classed shinobis and haven't seen much worse than this, then they may be scared to just be in his presence. His apparels gave him that intimidating feature, which made him seem like a predator getting ready to hunt.

He wore a white fox mask with layered ovals where his eyes are and on his forehead part of the mask, a dark blue-grey robe with grey lining and a fur collar, and a tattered grey-blue cape emblazoned with his personal emblem: a mandala comprised of nine reddish-brown circles of varying sizes atop a larger green-grey circle.

"You should have run off while you still had the chance kid, because now there is no turning back. I'm going to kill you." declared Deidara with anger evident in his voice.

"Why would I do that? This party has only just started." replied the masked shinobi in a relaxed manner, that showed that he doesn't even have the slightest fear of going up against two 'S' classed criminals.

Sasori had recovered from the escape and joined the battle. He stood by Deidara's side, and prepared for battle.

"Stand by and watch what real art is Sasori, he is mine." Deidara stated.

"Fine, just don't take too long. You know how much I hate waiting." replied Sasori, without taking his eyes from the masked shinobi. To be honest he didn't think this opponent was a weak shinobi who thought they were powerful enough to take on the world. He had heard about him before, after all there was a lot of rumours about this particular shinobi, and the fact that no one has seen him unmasked just increased his popularity. But he could understand what Deidara was feeling; this person had somehow escaped one of Deidara's attacks and responded by almost killing him, so of course Deidara would be angry.

Sasori then moved back and allowed Deidara to have some space.

Deidara put his hand into his pocket where his clay is stored and started moulding it.

"Ooh, what is it this time? Is it going to be another spider?" asked the masked ninja childishly. This act of behaviour annoyed Deidara, he was supposed to be on guard and prepare for an attack, not act like a child and look forward to it.

Once finished moulding, Deidara held out one arm with a seal and threw the mould. The small clay object flew into the air and expanded to almost the same size as Deidara. Then the large clay bird came to life and started to flap its wings and flew around before flying down to Deidara, who then jumped on top of it.

"Still exited?" Deidara asked with a grin.

"That is so cool!" exclaimed the masked shinobi, again in a childish manner.

This attitude annoyed Deidara further.

From the sidelines Sasori observed this ninja. He knew exactly how to piss off Deidara, and is exploiting it as much as he can, because when a ninja gets angry they are prone to making more mistakes and that is exactly what the masked ninja was doing.

Deidara got some more clay and started moulding it quickly. Once he had made his bird's mould, he then threw it into the air and used the ram seal again. The birds grew to the same size as a fist; these were a rather small bird compared to the one Deidara first made. Another noticeable feature was the colour of these birds; these birds were a slightly darker shade of white

The masked shinobi could see there was a difference between the new clay bird and the one he was standing on.

"These little birds aren't like the one I'm on, this **C2** clay is much more powerful then the **C4** I'm on." Deidara said with a grin.

He then activated the ram seal and the birds seemed to fly at him at an incredible speed. It was so fast that the only thing that could be seen was a blur of the bird's image.

The masked shinobi didn't seem to react much; he waited for the birds to get closer to him before making his move.

When the birds got to where Deidara wanted, he channelled more chakra to ignite the birds.

"Art is an explosion. KATSU!" shouted Deidara excitedly because he loved explosions and blowing up the shinobi who mocked him was satisfying.

The birds around the masked shinobi started to glow then they all exploded with a massive force, in fact the force was so great it sent a shockwave from where it exploded.

* * *

><p><strong>Akatsuki's hideout<strong>

Inside the cave the atmosphere was tense.

Hinata and Sakura were still tending to Gaara, who they had found in a critical state. The procedure had been going on for a while because Gaara was at death's doorstep, they were sure that if they had found Gaara even 5 minutes later there would have been no chance to save him. They had been doing the best they can to bring him to the world of the living.

It wasn't exactly easy for the rest of the group either; they had formed a protective circle around their medics while they stood guard, not even giving the chance for distraction to get in the way.

That's when they all felt it. The ground shook, throwing them off slightly. It didn't last long though, perhaps about 15 seconds, but it was enough to raise suspicions; what happened? Where did it come from? And lastly, was it the Akatsuki?

"That was not a natural." stated Shino, his bugs detected that, this tremor had a different frequency to that of an earthquake or a similar natural disaster would have.

Neji activated his Byakugan to see if he can find anything. It was hard to see what was around him due to the black mist, so he pressed his head against the ground, there he could see, very faintly, some chakra moving through the ground. He then voiced this to the others;

"Along with the tremor, there was also some chakra moving through the ground. Could it be the Akatsuki?"

This caused many of the people there to think, what they should do about this.

"I think we should have a small team investigate this." Lee said.

"Let's not be hasty Lee. It could be an unyouthful tactic used by the Akatsuki to separate us, and then they will take advantage of it to attack us." Gai said, in his lecturing tone, with pose which many would say was strange.

"Excellent analysis and advice Gai-sensei!" Lee shouted. He then took out a notepad from his pocket and scribbled down the new information he had just gained.

Everyone knew what was coming next. The most terrifying genjutsu, even Kurenei, a well renowned genjutsu user, cringed at the thought of what was coming.

Luckily for them Kakashi intervened.

"I agree, it could be the Akatsuki's doing to separate us, however there has been no sign of the Akatsuki being here other then the fact Gaara is in a critical situation. I think if the Akatsuki wanted to attack us they would have done so already, perhaps would be useful if we have a small team investigate the cause of the unnatural tremor."

He got his point across and many agreed with it. If the Akatsuki wanted Gaara then they would have fought them by now.

"I think it would be suitable if I go with Kiba and Neji to investigate this." Kakashi said, after seeing that everyone agreed with what he said before. The reason for this is because with Kiba and Neji are good at tracking, with Kiba and Akamaru's strong sense of smell along with Neji's ability to see far and through things they can track the person responsible for this.

"I think it's reasonable. This new information could also be valuable to us." said Kurenai, agreeing with Kakashi.

So, after the small team got ready they went out of the cave to find the cause, and as suggested by Lady Chiyo, they went south because that might be where it originated from.

* * *

><p><strong>Valley to the South<strong>

After the huge explosion took place, the whole Valley had been covered in dust. Deidara had to cover his eyes, but that didn't stop him from laughing like a maniac. He had killed the opponent that had been mocking him; of course he would be happy.

Sasori was also satisfied, he hated waiting and this was staring to annoy him. For him it was taking too long, if it had taken slightly longer he was going to step in.

The feeling didn't last long though.

As the dust started to many uprooted trees became visible, all caused by the explosion. The ground had also become like a bowl, clearly showing the power of the explosion.

In the centre of it all stood the masked ninja, looking completely unharmed by it all. It was evident that he suffered at least some damage, because his mask had been cracked slightly. There was also a fragment of it missing. The left ear of the mask had broken off.

**_"Naruto! That was a big explosion and you're lucky to have survived that. You also know what that means don't you."_**

'Yes Kurama.' Naruto replied, 'The rescue team would have felt the shockwave sent by the explosion and they are likely to send someone to investigate it.'

**_"And the plan was to keep your identity for as long as possible, so stop fooling around now and let's defeat these two. I would say we have about 20 minutes before someone arrives to investigate this."_**

'Ok then Kurama. Let's do it.'

When Deidara saw that the masked shinobi was still alive after one of his more powerful Jutsu he was angry, his blood was boiling and he was about to use his most powerful Jutsu, even if he had to pay the ultimate price for it.

Fortunately Sasori seemed to know what Deidara was about to do.

"Deidara, your time is up, I cannot wait any longer for you to deal with him, and I'm also going to fight."

"Humph, fine. Just try not to get in the way of my art." Deidara replied.

"Good thing you're both getting involved. It makes it easier for me as I'm running out of time here." said Naruto calmly.

Deidara was slightly angry about this comment, but he was glad that the masked shinobi wasn't acting like a child anymore.

"You think you can take on both of at the same time?" questioned Sasori, slightly amused; "You may have been doing well against Deidara but I'm not like him. I saw what you were doing against him, making him angry so that he is more likely to make mistakes. It won't work against me."

Whilst Sasori was talking Naruto was coming up with a way to attack them both. One of the things was getting Deidara to the ground, so that both of them will be on the ground to attack. Another was how he wanted to do this; he should either do it silently or do it quickly and with a destructive jutsu. He then came to a conclusion, he will try to do it quietly but if he had to finish this up immediately then he will use _it._

Before giving them the chance to attack, Naruto put his hands together in a tiger seal and chanted;

**"Nine mask Svaha: Suzaku"**

With that a large mandala displayed itself above Naruto. The circle mandala had a unique patter that can be seen as the same from any angle; it also had the kanji for 'vermilion bird' in the centre. Then from the centre a large vermilion bird flew through it. It was a bird with elegant and dramatic plumage, which wore a matching mask to the mask that the masked shinobi wore, however unlike the masked shinobi the vermilion didn't wear one which looked like a kitsune, but rather that of a bird due to the sharp beak pointing downwards in a curve .The bird then flew straight to Naruto and hovered above him.

Deidara wasting no time also launched his attack. His small clay spiders dropped to the ground and rushed towards Naruto, who rather than letting it get a chance to attack prepared his counter attack. Just as the igniting spiders were about to jump at him he quickly went through a set of hand seals and launched his attack;

**"Fuuton: Great Breakthrough"**

Naruto then pulled back his arm then pushed it in the direction of the spiders, while they were still in the air as they were jumping towards him. With that an extremely strong gust of wind pushed the spiders back to its owner, where it exploded.

Deidara saw what he was about to do, so he tried to dodge by going up but before he could the vermilion had swooped above him at an incredible speed forcing him to duck and go below, otherwise he would be headless; so he got caught in the explosion.

Using the confusion of the explosion Naruto was about to launch one of his more destructive jutsu, however he was forced to jump away from his spot due to the senbons that flew at him from inside the cloud caused by the explosion.

When the dust cloud dispersed, Sasori and Deidara were still there; having taken a small amount of damage. Deidara was still on his clay bird, the bird had also been dealt some damage as a small fraction of its tail had been blown off by the spiders.

The vermilion was still engaging Deidara in an aerial fight; using this distraction Naruto decided to attack Sasori.

Before Naruto could attack Sasori slid his jaw down and fired a hail of poisoned senbons at him. This forced Naruto to dodge again, therefore losing concentration on Sasori.

Sasori used this to his advantage and fired his tail at the masked shinobi.

Naruto, who had just recovered from dodging the senbons, saw the tail coming straight at him. He was shocked to see how long the tail can stretch to. He couldn't do anything and so the tail pierced him; straight through the heart.

Before Sasori could celebrate victory the 'masked shinobi' transformed into black mist. He then realised that this must have been some kind of clone so he immediately started looking for where the shinobi could have disappeared to.

**"Meiton: Land Shark"**

Sasori turned to look in the direction of where the voice came from. That's when he saw a black fin moving towards him through the ground. The fins didn't seem to stop at anything, and he found that when the fin moved straight through a small boulder, cutting it in half as it moved through it.

He waited till the fins got closer, then with a quick and swift movement of his tail; his tail impaled the ground just in front of him, effectively lifting a part of the ground below him.

Rather than stopping, the shark dived into the ground.

From the air Deidara saw what was happening and wanted to help Sasori, but this pesky vermilion didn't look like it was going to stop at anytime soon. He had been attacking it with some of the C4 birds he attacked the masked shinobi with, but this bird didn't seem like it was even effected by any of it because it shook of the damage like it was nothing then continued to chase him. But Deidara knew that it was doing damage because the bird had gotten slower, so all he had to was take his attacks to the next level.

Deidara made another large bird, the same one as the one he was flying on. Only this time it was a C2 clay bird. For his next move to work he lowered the altitude so that he was about 10 feet high in the air. He then waited for the vermilion to come at him again. When it did he quickly jumped of the bird he was on and landed on the ground safely.

In the air the bird that Deidara was on flew directly below the vermilion whilst his C2 bird flew above it, making it so that the vermilion couldn't escape. Next Deidara triggered the explosion with a hand seal causing a massive explosion in the sky. This caused a smoke cloud in the air, and something fell through the smoke. When Deidara observed it more he found that it was a small fox with a, more or less, identical mask to the one which the masked shinobi wore. He then turned hi attention to Sasori.

Sasori was still at the same spot, calmly observing his surroundings for where the shark will attack from. As he was too focused on what was around him he never noticed the pebbles below him move.

Then from below the ground the shark made from shadow rose with its jaws open. Sasori acted quickly and went to impale the shark through the head with his tail.

He was too late.

The shark forcefully closed its jaws together, as a result crunching Sasori and tore through half of Sasori's body. Before the shark could make it any further, the tail which was already moving at the shark went straight through its head. The shark then melted into some black liquid and dissolved into the ground.

From a distance Deidara saw this and felt both angry and sad.

Now Deidara really wanted to use _that _jutsu.

While the masked ninja was still focused on Sasori, Deidara created his **Suicide Bombing Clone**. Once it was done, he decided to get out of the area because it was set to explode in a few minutes. Clearly this was a strong opponent and his leader's order was to evacuate if their opponent was too much to handle. If he had defeated Sasori easily then he didn't stand much chance of winning. So he left a paring gift as he left the area, there was going to be a big explosion.

Once the Deidara was out of sight the clone decided to draw attention to it by launching some clay spiders at the masked shinobi.

After having defeated Sasori, Naruto went to examine him. It seemed too easy to defeat an 'S' class shinobi. When he got closer he was forced to dodge as a spider jumped at him. And he was lucky to have done that because the spider attached itself to the tree behind him and exploded. If he hadn't moved that would have been his head instead of the tree.

He looked to were the attack came from and saw Deidara there, and near him was the defeated vermilion, which was now a fox. Though something seemed different, he could feel chakra building up inside of Deidara, he tried to remember where he had felt that before.

He was preparing an attack for Deidara when he heard a noise behind him, when he looked behind him he saw a red haired puppet rising from the 'body' of Sasori.

It didn't take him long to come to a conclusion. That, there, in front of him, was the real Sasori. He knew that Sasori pretty much worshipped art that can last forever hence his likings for puppets, but to turn himself into a puppet… that's crazy.

Naruto also realised that he now stood in the middle of both artist, it want a good place to be at right now. He quickly moved away from them both so that he was the same distance apart from both of them.

"I'm surprised that you managed to break Hiruko, he was one of the powerful puppets in terms of offence and defence. It takes some skill to be able to break him. I acknowledge you!" Sasori stated.

Meanwhile both Deidara and Naruto were still looking at Sasori.

"So that's what you really look like Sasori." Deidara said, slightly amused by Sasori's appearance.

While Naruto was still observing Sasori, he took out a scroll.

"Behold, this is my strongest puppet. You were lucky to have made it this far however, you're wasting my time." Sasori said with a hint of anger.

He then activated the ram seal and instead of the scroll there was a cloud of smoke and when it dispersed there floating in the air, was the third Kazekage, connected to Sasori via chakra strings.

"This is the ultimate puppet." He said proudly.

Naruto recognised the puppet as the third Kazekage, who had for unknown reason went missing 20 years ago. He also knew that the third was a powerful shinobi who could control metal through his magnet release bloodline. Naruto knew he had to get rid of the puppet if he wanted to get out of this alive. He wasted no time in summoning his next masked beast and with a reason too.

**"Nine Mask Svaha: Shinigami"**

Like the last summoning a giant mandala became visible above Naruto, unlike the previous one it had a different pattern and in the centre was the kanji for 'Shinigami'. From there, a priest that resembles a skeleton came through, carrying a scythe. This priest also wore the similar patterned mask.

Without giving the enemy a chance the Shinigami swung its scythe in the direction of the third Kazekage. The swing of this scythe unleashed a sickle like energy wave which went straight towards the Kazekage.

Sasori saw this coming and tried to move his puppet so he moved it away from him.

That was a big mistake, because the energy wave passed through the chakra strings which was in its path, as it passed through it the wave got bigger and bigger. The chakra strings also went into the wave and Sasori realised what was happening so before it was too late he released the strings he was holding on to. The energy wave continued in its path and sunk into the ground, almost like it never existed.

"You should be glad that you let that go Sasori, otherwise your chakra would have been drained." Naruto said from where he stood.

Sasori was about to reply but his attention was drawn to Deidara, who was now growing bigger and shining white.

"Sasori, run!" Deidara suggested whilst still growing.

Sasori realised now that this was one of his suicide bomber clone and so he knew its potential. He also knew that if this was happening the Deidara has already left, perhaps this happened after Deidara thought he was eaten by the shark. After all Deidara had never seen him in this form, so it was possible.

He decided it was best if he too fled because he knew he would not survive the explosion that was about to happen, so he turned to move away from the clone, however that was his biggest mistake. He looked ahead of him and saw a wave of energy fly forward.

It had just gone through him.

As the wave went straight it continuously got bigger, all the while draining his chakra.

Sasori immediately felt weak and fell face first to the ground.

**BOOM!**

The clone exploded.

The explosion was so big it created a large crater, on the ground. It also created a gigantic duct cloud that would linger for a while.

In the crater there was nothing. No green trees that had been there. No animals that resided there. Only a giant crater that made it looks like a bowl now. It didn't even look like a valley now.

After a few minutes 3 men and a dog came into the dust cloud.

"I can't smell anything other than the ground due to the dust cloud Kakashi-sensei." Kiba said. His loyal companion also agreed with that as Akamaru barked at that statement.

"I can see chakra lingering everywhere and what seems to some sort of clay floating in the air." Neji described with his Byakugan.

It wouldn't have taken a genius to figure out what happened here. There was obviously a ninja battle that had taken place.

"I don't think we are going to find much here anymore. Whatever caused that explosion must have erased everything in its range. It's best if we returned to the group." Kakashi concluded.

They all turned back to leave. Just before returning Kakashi felt like he had kicked something, so he went to take a closer look at it. On the floor it seemed to be a pointy red fragment with white outline, that had dug into the ground, on top of it was a small cloth with part of a red cloud.

* * *

><p><strong>Authors notes:<br>**

This will be this last update of the pre-written chapters. I know I said there was chapter 7 but Im going to change the plot so Im not going to post it.

I was looking at the stats of this story and it has over 3,000 views but only 8 reviews. Come on people, reviews are what I love about writing because it allows me to know what you think of this story.

Besides that I'm still in search of a Beta reader.

Next chapter will be out with in 2 weeks at most. So please be patient, in the mean time tell me what you think of the story so far, do you like how Naruto fights? Is there something wrong? Any plot holes? Any improvements that needs to happen? etc.


	7. Plans

**I think after reading 6 chapters of this story, and seeing me admit that; I don't own Naruto, you all understand the point;**

**I don't own Naruto.**

**I'm not going to be saying that any more. Sorry if that makes you sad (Yes you Kishimoto, I know you are reading this.).**

**I think that's enough; on with the story.**

* * *

><p><strong>Nine sides of a Mask<strong>

* * *

><p><strong><em>Chapter 7 - Plans<em>**

* * *

><p><strong>Suna - main gate<strong>

Outside the main gate of Suna stood the rescue teams from Konoha, along with the Kazekage and his siblings; behind the Kazekage stood Chiyo and her brother; Ebizo, and behind them stood a giant crowd to send off their hero's rescuers.

"I thank you all once again, but are you sure you want to leave now? You can stay for another day and fully recover." said Gaara. He had woken up a day after he had been found in critical situation, Hinata and Sakura had done a lot to get him back so soon. Even now he hadn't fully recovered but still came to say farewell.

"I appreciate the offer but we must leave as soon as possible. Mainly because we must report back to Hokage-sama as it does concern the Akatsuki." Kakashi said, respectfully declining the offer, he also wanted to get back soon so that he can report what he found in secret.

Behind Kakashi, most of the team agreed with him. They too wanted to get back to Konoha because they wanted to be there in case anything happened.

"I too agree with Kakashi, this mission has been completed successfully, and so we must get back home." Gai added.

Gaara accepted that, he knew what they meant; after all he was now a Kage and knew more about how the shinobi system worked.

"Very well then; I guess all I can say is have a safe trip." Gaara said with a smile.

The team took that as the right time to leave. They turned around and started walking back. Their destination: Konoha.

As they left Gaara stayed for a bit longer and looked at the team as they slowly got smaller whilst the horizon got bigger. And as he looked he couldn't help but think of his first friend; the one who changed him for the better.

'I wonder what would have happed if you were still around; maybe you would have saved me, eh Naruto?' he thought as he looked at the sky.

The irony

* * *

><p><strong>Amegakure<strong>

"So you're telling me that Sasori is dead and you don't know how it happened."

"Yes Pein-sama, the black mist had made it impossible to see what was going on, and I couldn't risk getting closer. But whoever this shinobi is he is very skilled as he took on both Sasori and Deidara and survived with Sasori being dead and Deidara still in critical condition." Zetsu said.

"You did well Zetsu. I want you to get back to locating the Kyuubi, it should be reforming soon." Pein replied from his seat.

"Hai Pein-sama." and Zetsu sank to the ground, gone off to do his next mission.

"This is troubling." said a masculine voice from the darkness in the corner of the room.

* * *

><p>"So what you're saying is this wasn't something you saw. What does that mean?"<p>

"I don't know, but somehow there is more to this then just defeating your final goal."

"This is confusing. I thought I was just going to be trained to defeat the juubi. Is there a bigger threat than the juubi?"

"I'm just as puzzled as you are. The power you have gained is no ordinary bloodline. You now have the power to do many great things from simply suppressing an explosion to completely shutting off someone else's power. I can help you learn to use this gift to its maximum potential."

"That's awesome! But how do you know so much about this bloodline jiji? Do you also have this power?"

"No I'm afraid; but it was this very devastating power that helped me defeat the juubi last time."

"But you said…."

**'. . . Up'**

. . .

**'Up!'**

'huuh'

**'I SAID WAKE UP!'**

It seemed to work.

Naruto quickly opened his eyes.

'What happened?'

**'What happened is you got really cocky last fight and underestimated your opponent? What were you thinking? That fight was to see if you were ready, and obviously you aren't; still acting like you can take on the world by yourself.'**

'I know…'

**'What were you thinking using two of the masked beast at the same time without my help? You know it puts a toll on your body. The last explosion threw you far, if it weren't for your healing and your natural ability to suppress explosion then you could be in serious trouble right now. You could have at least used your summons to get this done. I mean why summon the vermillion instead of your summoning.'**

'I KNOW! I know that it could have gone better Kurama. I realised the mistakes I made, which is why next time I won't make the same ones. I also realise there is no more second chances anymore.'

**'Your damn right there isn't.' **Kurama practically roared.

**'We don't have tou-san to bring us back like last time.' **He continued but with a slightly softer voice this time.

Then they were in silent for about a minute thinking about the sage of six paths.

Naruto then broke the silence.

'Where are we anyway and how long was I out for?'

**'You got yourself blown away from the valley and landed about a mile away. Lucky for you it was grassland and not a hard surface. And you were unconscious for just less than a week.' Kurama replied with a small grin.**

'WHAT! No. I don't think I have time to rest. I need to hurry right now. We have to go and get registered; it's the only chance we get or wait 4 years for another.'

Naruto slowly got up despite the sharp pain he felt through his back and did some quick stretch. He then cut his thumb with a kunai and went through the summoning seals; however before he finished the jutsu he was stopped due to Kurama.

**'bwahahahahahahahahaha. You're even more of an idiot than I thought. Hahahahaha. We still have time to get there. Hahahahaha it's only been a day.' **Kurama said whilst finding it difficult to control the laughter.

Naruto then realised that Kurama had just lied to him, and he fell for it. But it was believable; after all he was unconscious for two weeks during his training once. It still sent him shivers down his spine when thinking about what happened.

"You're a jerk." He simply said and cut off the mental link. But he swore he could still hear Kurama laughing.

He then took off in a direction to find some water source.

* * *

><p><strong>Konoha<strong>

In the buzzing village hidden in the leaf, it was getting close to midday. Even though it was another hot day, the streets were packed with villagers going about with their own business.

At the village gate we find two very dedicated shinobi doing their job passionately.

"Ace"

"Go fish."

Doing a big sigh, Kotetsu went to get a card from the pile in front of them. As he was about to all the cards flew off.

"Yatta! Gai sensei did you see that! I got here first." shouted Lee from outside the registering office.

"I did Lee. Your flames of youth is shining brightly." Gai said with a thumb up and his bright smile.

"We haven't even arrived and you guys start some commotion." said Tenten as she walked through the gate with the rest of the group.

Most of them nodded their heads.

"Man it feels great to be home again." Kiba said whilst taking in the scent of the air. Akamaru barked as if he too was sharing the same thoughts.

"Well teams, since we are here now, I guess all of you could do what you want now. I will go to Tsunade-sama and give in a report of this mission." Kakashi said relieving them of duty. Then he went in the direction of the Hokage's office.

After that Kurenei left. Gai and Lee left together singing about 'youth'. Sasuke too left, but not many paid attention to him, they already knew he went off to train at the Uchiha compound. Shino too left saying he needed to tend to his hive at the compound.

"Well guys what about going for some BBQ?" questioned Kiba, since they were all free now.

"I don't know Kiba, we just got back from a mission, I think I will go home and get some rest, and maybe help my dad out around the shop." replied Tenten.

"Sorry Kiba I need to go to the hospital, see if there is any extra help needed. If not then I'm going home to rest." replied Sakura and left with Hinata, who was doing the same thing.

"I'm going to go train." Neji said and left.

"Well it's just me and you now, eh buddy?" Kiba said, and got no reply.

He looked around and saw that Akamaru had wondered off with another ninken from his clan.

"TRAITOR!" he shouted and just heard a faint sound of the dogs barking.

He then saw that Izumo and Kotetsu was playing cards so he just went up to them.

"Hey guys. Mind if I play with you?" Kiba asked.

"Sure." They replied, and put out a chair for him.

* * *

><p><strong>Hokage's office<strong>

After having told the Hokage about the mission, Tsunade was happy. The Kazekage was saved, but most of the Ichibi was taken by the Akatsuki. This news made here slightly angry, but there was nothing they could do. Tsunade had also saw that Kakashi had more to say.

"Is there anything else to add Kakashi?"

"Actually yes Hokage-sama. I told you about the black mist and the interference it caused us."

Tsunade nodded her head.

"Whilst we were in the cave guarding the Kazekage, we felt the earth shake, upon further investigation we realised that it was chakra infused. So me, Neji Hyuuga and Kiba Inuzuka formed as an investigation team to look into this. As we were getting closer to the epicentre of the tremor we felt an even bigger explosion. By the time we arrived there all that was left was a giant crater." Kakashi paused for a moment to allow that to Tsunade to soak that up.

He then took out a scroll.

"I didn't show anybody else this, but it was something I found there."

He then unsealed it and a small cloth with red clod and a small piece with red pattern fell on her desk.

After taking a closer inspection, she concluded that it had something to do with the Akatsuki.

But what she didn't understand was the strange piece with the red markings.

"Good job Kakashi. This could prove to be important information. I think for now you shouldn't tell anybody about this. You should go take a break, after all the jonin exams begin next week." Tsunade said.

"Hai Hokage-sama." Kakashi said with a bow and left the room.

Tsunade sat there thinking about the piece whilst carefully observing it.

**Knock Knock**

"Come in." shouted Tsunade so that the person behind the door could hear her.

Then a young kunoichi entered the room. She walked up to Tsunade's desk and took out a small red scroll.

"Hokage-sama, this is another applicant for the jonin's exams. It's from Kiri, it was a late entry." She then presented it to Tsunade.

Tsunade opened the scroll and started reading through it.

The kunoichi was observing Tsunade as she read through the scroll. As Tsunade got halfway through the scroll her eyes widened.

"Take this back and have the exams add this name to the competition." she quickly said.

The kunoichi took the scroll and hurried out the office.

"What caused that kind of reaction, eh hime? I think you scared her." said a voice behind her with a chuckle.

"Jiraiya! How many times have I told you to use the doo- never mind." She said.

Tsunade then turned towards his direction.

"I have a mission for you. It's to be completed very quickly and I want to reports back before the jonin exams begin." Tsunade said, very seriously.

Jiraiya knew now was not the time for jokes.

"What is it." he asked, giving her his full attention.

"I want you to look into a name. He will be joining our exams next week as Kiri ninja however he is originally a mercenary. Perhaps Kiri is using him to gain more mission request if he is good." She then paused to think a little deeper into this and to allow the information to sink in for Jiraiya.

"The name of this participant is; Menma Uzumaki."

Jiraiya then understood this is serious. There is an unknown Uzumaki joining this exam. He needed to look into this before the exams started.

"I will look into this hime. I will be back before the exams begin. Until then just treat him like a normal participant." With that Jiraiya made his exit, leaving Tsunade to think a little more about this new participant.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's notes<strong>

Sorry for a short chapter, but was that good?

Well I did say I was going to take a different turn to last time and when I thought about it, it wouldn't have worked out.

Well thank you for still sticking with this story. After next chapter I will hit a milestone. Passing 30,000 words. Just passed 100 followers now, so thank you :)

Leave a review. Tell me if you see a mistake, if you want to see something not there. Or even any suggestions. PMs are welcome too. I will try and get back as soon as I can.

Reviews motivate me to write faster :)


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